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JOSEPH ADDISON. 



Zhc SLaftegioe Series of Bnalisb TReaftinaa 
...The... 

Sir Roger de Coverley Papers 

FROM THE SPECTATOR 



Edited with an Introduction and Notes 

by 
CARRIE E. TUCKER DRACASS 

Instructor in English and History in the Englewood 
High School, Chicago 






*%#* 



CHICAGO 

AINSWORTH 6- COMPANY 

1902 






THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS, 

r e.oeivec 

Copyright entry 

6U^ . r <L / s q o %~ 

Ou XXc. NO 



COPY 



1 



Copyright, 1902 
By Ainsworth & Company 



PREFACE. 

How to study, and what to look for, are most perplexing ques- 
tions to the youthful student of the English classics. By the use 
of questions and many quotations from other numbers of The Spec- 
tator, this edition of the De Coverley Papers aims to assist the 
student in his effort to discover for himself the purpose of the 
authors, the content of the papers, and their influence upon the 
thought and manners, the literature and morals of their own and 
succeeding periods. 

As the year to which the study of these selections is assigned 
varies in different schools, some of the questions may seem too easy 
for fourth-year pupils, and others too difficult for first-year work, 
but the quotations will be appreciated by all. 

Personal experience, corroborated by that of other teachers, has 
shown that the two allegories, " The Vision of Mirza " and " The 
Golden Scales," prove desirable additions to the numbers usually 
given ; that a map of London and views of noted places add much 
to the interest of the book ; that all notes and questions are better 
at the back of the book. 

We desire especially to thank Miss Grace Cooley, of the Evanston 
Township High School, for her courtesy in discussing with us de- 
sirable points in the preparation of this edition. 

Chicago. 





Contents 


• 








PAGE 


Bibliography 




. • X 


Introduction 




vi 




THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS. 








NO. OF 


CHAPTER TITLE 


AUTHOR SPECTATOR PAGE 


I. 


The Spectator 


Addison 


I I 


II. 


The Spectator Club . 


Steele 


2 5 


III. 


Sir Roger Moralizes . 


Steele 


6 


IV. 


Club Concessions . 


Addison 


34 


V. 


Sir Roger's Client 


Addison 


37 


VI. 


Coverley Hall . 


Addison 


106 


VII. 


The Coverley Household 


Steele 


. 107 


VIII. 


Will Wimble .... 


Addison 


108 


IX. 


The Coverley Ancestry 


Steele 


109 


X. 


The Coverley Ghost 


Addison 


no 


XI. 


A Coverley Sunday . 


Addison 


112 


XII. 


Sir Roger in Love 


Steele 


• "3 


XIII. 


Sir Roger's Economy 


Steele 


114 


XIV. 


Labor and Exercise . 


Addison 


"5 


XV. 


Sir Roger as a Hunter . 


Budgell 


116 


XVI. 


The Coverley Witch 


Addison 


117 


XVII. 


A Coverley Pastoral 


Steele 


118 


XVIII. 


Sir Roger at the Assizes 


Addison 


122 


XIX. 


Mischiefs of Party Spirit 


'Addison 


125 


XX. 


Party Spirit — Continued 


Addison 


126 


XXI. 


Gypsies at Coverley 


Addison 


130 


XXII. 


The Spectator Summoned to 








London 


Addison 


131 


XXIII. 


The Coach to London . 


Steele 


132 


XXIV. 


Sir Roger and Sir Andrew 








Freeport 


Steele 


174 


XXV. 


Sir Roger in London 


Addison 


269 


XXVI. 


Sir Roger in Westminster 








Abbey , 


Addison 


329 



Vll 



Vlll 



CONTENTS. 



XXVII. Sir Roger at the Play . . Addison . 335 
XXVIII. Sir Roger and Will Honey- 
comb Budgell : 359 

XXIX. Sir Roger at Vauxhall . . Addison . 383 

XXX. Death of Sir Roger . . Addison . 517 
XXXI. The Vision of Mirza, An 

Allegory Addison . 159 

XXXII. The Golden Scales, An 

Allegory Addison . 463 



Notes. 

QUOTED FROM PAGE NO. 

TOPICS SPECTATOR, NO. OF NOTES 

Mottoes 221, 370 . 157 

Coffee Houses 403 . 158 

The Letters Used as Signatures 221 . 160 

The Spectator Club, Identity of .... 262 . 160 

The Purpose of the Spectator 262 . 161 

The Country Squire .162 

The Game Act .163 

The Inns of Court -163 

The Theater . 164 

The Parks .165 

Italian Opera — The Puppet Show .... .166 

The Occupations of a Lady 323 . 167 

Gardens . . . • . . . . . . . 414 . 169 

The Social Position of a Chaplain .... . 169 

Hunting and Hounds 163, 176, 177 

Witchcraft ..... . 177 

Signs 28 . 179 

Party Spirit 81, 507, 629 . 180 

Trade 69 182, 183 

Christmas Customs . 184 

Westminster Abbey .26 . 184 

The Mohocks 324, 347 . 187 

Vauxhall . 189 

Newspaper Tax . 190 

Suggestions for Themes and General Discussions . 193 



Illustrations, 



Addison, . 

A Coffee-house, Interior 

Lincoln's Inn Gateway 

The Tilt-yard 

A Lady's Costume 

Costume of Anne of Denmark 

Bringing in the Yule Log at Christmas 

Plan of Westminster Abbey 

Westminster Abbey, West Front . 

Edward the Confessor's Chapel 

Poets' Corner ..... 

A Street Scene . 

Vauxhall in 175 1 

Old London Bridge and Houses . 

Newspaper Stamp v 

Maps of London f 



Frontispiece 

3 

20 
42 

43 
44 
118 
119 
121 
124 
126 
128 
137 
x 39 

157 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

History. — J. R. Green: History of the English People, 1879. 
J. H. Burton: History of the Reign of Queen Anne, 1880. E. E. 
Morris: The Age of Anne, — Epochs of Modern History, 1877. 
Macaulay : History of England, 1849-1855, chap. iii. W. E. H. 
Lecky : A History of England in the Eighteenth Century, 1878, 
chaps, i, ii, and iv. 

Literature and Social Life. — W. H. D. Adams: Good Queen 
Anne; Men and Manners, Life and Letters in England's Augustan 
Age, 1886. John Ashton : Social Life in the Reign of Queen Anne, 
1882. Bishop Burnet: History of My Own Times, 1833. W. Connor 
Sidney : England and the English in the Eighteenth Century ; 
Chapters in the Social History of the Times, 1894. H. D. Traill : 
Social England; A Record of the Progress of the People in Re- 
ligion, Laws, Learning, etc., from the Earliest Times to the Present 
Day, 1894-1897, Vol. IV. Jonathan Swift : Journal to Stella. Austin 
Dobson : Eighteenth Century Vignette's, 1 892-1 896. Wheatley and 
Cunningham's London, Past and Present, 1891, and Charles Knight's 
London, are also helpful. Thackeray's Henry Esmond, Hare's 
Walks in London, Baedeker's London, Gay's Trivia, Prior's Town 
and Country Mouse, and Nathan Drake's Essays on The Tatler, 
Spectator, and Guardian, furnish additional material of interest. 

Biography. — Articles in the various Encyclopedias and text-books 
on English Literature will be most accessible. For further work : 
Macaulay : Essay on Addison. Thackeray : English Humorists. 
J. W. Courthope : Addison, English Men of Letter Series. H. Ward: 
English Poets, Vol. III. Edmund Gosse : History of Eighteenth 
Century Literature, Vol. II, bk. iii. Dr. Johnson : Lives of the 
Poets. Lucy Aikin : Life of Joseph Addison. J. R. Green: Addi- 
son's Essays, the introduction. For Steele, see : George A. Aitkin : 
Life of Richard Steele. Austin Dobson : Richard Steele. 

The Spectator. — Editions of and selections from. George A. Ait- 
kin : The Spectator, 1898, 8 vols. Henry Morley : The Spectator, 
1891, 3 vols.; 1896, 1 vol., with an index. William Wheeler: A 
Digest Index to The Spectator, arranged for reference to the one- 
vol. edition of Henry Morley's Spectator. G. Gregory Smith : The 
Spectator, 1897-98, 8 vols. J. R. Green: Selections from the Essays 
of Addison, 1885. 

The Tatler.— George A. Aitkin: The Tatler, 1898-99, 4 vols. 
The Tatler and Guardian, Nimmo, London, 1876. A. C. Ewald : 
Selections from The Tatler and Guardian, 1888.. 



INTRODUCTION. 

To understand the condition of England during the reign of 
Queen Anne, it is necessary to go back to the year 1640, and to 
recall some of the great political changes that had taken place. 
Charles I. had been beheaded for disregarding the constitutional 
rights of Englishmen. Cromwell and the Commonwealth had fol- 
lowed — a period of just government because of the unusual force 
of character and the uprightness of the leader. Richard Cromwell 
succeeded his father, but was soon deposed by the Puritan army. 
Charles II. was recalled in 1660, — for the best men of all parties 
were agreed that a limited monarchy was after all the best form 
of government for England. With the Restoration came a de- 
terioration in manners and morals, that grew worse rather than 
better under James II., who became king in 1665. He was even 
more determined than Charles had been to wrest from the people 
their constitutional rights: In 1688 he was forced to abdicate, and 
William and Mary were crowned. Now began an important period 
in English history. . William proved a wise statesman, and sought 
to govern only by the authority of Parliament. On the Continent, 
Marlborough was victorious, the Grand Alliance of Protestant na- 
tions was formed ; at home, greater interest in all public matters was 
aroused, and the nation grew and developed. 

" It may be doubted whether the change that passed over litera- 
ture was not more startling and more interesting than the change 
that passed over politics. . . . The new writers aimed at teaching, 
but at teaching in pleasant and familiar ways. . . . Letters found 
a new interest in the scenes and common life around them." This 
change in literature was only one of the results of the new ac- 
tivities of the people, and an indication of the still greater changes 
to be brought about through the influence of the writings of such 
men as Jeremy Collier, Swift, Steele, and Addison, who did not 
hesitate to attack the evils of the time. 

In reviewing the social conditions of the times of Queen Anne, 
one of the first points of interest is the educational advantages 



xii THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS. 

offered to the young people. Mr. Ashton has the following : " They 
were not taught much, these girls; ' the needle, dancing, and the 
French tongue,' says one — ' a little music on the harpsichord or 
spinet, to read, write, and cast accounts in a small way ' — this was 
the sum of their education. Essentially they were to be housekeep- 
ers. Here is the description that an exceptionally accomplished 
young lady gives of her own education : ' You know my father was 
a tradesman, and lived well by his traffic ; and I being beautiful, 
he thought nature had already given me part of my portion, and 
therefore he would add a liberal education, that I might be a com- 
plete gentlewoman ; away he sent me to boarding school ; there 
I learned to dance and sing, to play on the bass viol, virginals, and 
spinet, and guitar. I learned to make wax work, japan, paint upon 
glass, to raise paste, make sweetmeats, sauces, and everything that 
was genteel and fashionable.' This was the town-bred lady." 

The girl who lived in the country gave more attention to 
feeding the poultry, making cheese, and churning. All kinds of 
pastry and creams were expected of her. Cooking schools, or 
pastry schools, were much in vogue, and were attended by those 
who wished a higher education in the " noble art " of pastry-mak- 
ing. " One other branch of a girl's education was never neglected, 
and that was dancing. This was to teach her a graceful carriage, 
and how to conduct herself in society." 

The boys were expected to attend day school or boarding school 
— the latter seem to have increased in numbers toward the end of 
Anne's reign. Eventually they entered college, where many of 
them spent their time or, as Steele says in Spectator, No. 54, " may 
be said rather to suffer their time to pass, than to spend it, without 
regard to the past or prospect as to the future. When one of this 
order happens to be a man of fortune, the expense of his time is 
transferred to his coach and horses, and his life is to be measured 
by their motion, not his own enjoyments and sufferings." Others — 
among them our authors, Steele and Addison — made good use of 
their time, and the world has been the better for it. "Although 
French, High Dutch, and Italian were taught, this was essentially 
a classical age, and every gentleman was bound to be a fair, if 
not a good classical scholar." In Spectator, No. 147, Steele com- 
plains that the boys at school, " when they got into Latin, are 



INTRODUCTION. xiii 

looked upon as above English, the reading of which is wholly neg- 
glected, or at least read to very little purpose." We are told that 
there was a company of " learned gentlemen " who met every day 
at Hogarth's Coffee House to converse in Latin. " The master of 
the house, in the absence of the others, being always ready to enter- 
tain gentlemen in the Latin tongue." 

It is an interesting fact that charity schools were first instituted 
during Anne's reign. The first school established was for boys ; it 
was soon followed by one for girls. 

The education of many of the lords of the manor or the country 
gentlemen, was little different from that of their servants. If the 
heir of an estate went to school and college, he generally returned 
before finishing the course, and, giving his attention to matters con- 
nected directly with his estate, soon forgot nearly all he had 
learned. In this respect, Sir Roger was the superior of many a 
country gentleman ; his tastes were such that he had continued to 
read after returning to his estate. It takes a scholar to appreciate 
a scholar. Sir Roger's literary preferences may be seen in his choice 
of a chaplain and in the volumes of sermons which he presented to 
the chaplain. 

In the care and attention with which all matters connected with 
Sir Roger's estate were managed, the authors have again presented 
an ideal, Macaulay says : " The average country lord troubled him- 
self little about decorating his abode. The litter of the barnyard 
and stable gathered under the windows of his bedchamber ; the 
cabbage and gooseberry bushes grew close to his hall door. . . . 
His house was usually either of plaster, striped with timbers, or of 
brick, with long bow windows. The owner himself spent a large 
part of his time in hunting, cock-fighting, smoking, drinking, and 
lording it over his neighbors. . . . His table was loaded with coarse 
plenty, and beer was the common beverage, as his fortunes would 
not permit him to intoxicate large numbers daily on claret and 
canary. The ladies of the household, whose duty it had been to 
cook the repast, retired as soon as the dishes had been devoured, 
and left the gentlemen to their ale and tobacco ; often the coarse 
jollity of the afternoon was prolonged till the revelers were laid 
under the table. Dinner was the principal meal." 

" In many essential points, the lord of the manor was a gentle- 
man. He was a member of a great aristocracy ; he had a coat of 



xiv THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS. 

arms, and knew the genealogies and the coats of arms of his neigh- 
bors. He was generally a Tory. He was. a magistrate, and admin- 
istered justice gratuitously to those who dwelt near him." However 
much he might grumble at the existing state of things from a politi- 
cal point of view, he was always loyal when his loyalty was needed 
for the maintenance of his country's honor. 

The rural clergy were also an important factor at this time, 
and with the lords stood stanohly by the Church of England. As 
individuals, the clergymen ranked almost as servants. They could 
follow their profession only by obtaining the patronage of some 
country lord. What a man of talent and of fine feeling suffered 
in the humiliating position in which he found himself may be im- 
agined. He received his room and board and a small salary, 
usually about ten pounds a year. He maintained the dignity of 
the country squire by saying grace at the table ; he conducted serv- 
ices in the chapel on Sunday; he shod the horses, or dug in the 
garden, and made himself generally useful on the estate. " Before 
the Reformation, clergymen had transacted much of the important 
diplomatic business of the kingdom, but at the time of Addison, the 
clergy was regarded as a plebeian class. Those in charge of the 
larger livings and in the city still retained many advantages, but 
it was not until later in the eighteenth century that the increased 
value of the benefices created a change in public sentiment toward 
the clergy." 

" To travel on the Continent, to maintain an establishment in 
London, or even to visit London frequently, were pleasures in which 
only the great proprietors could indulge." 

Although the Act establishing the General Post provided that 
" Letters return from all parts of England and North Britain, Mon- 
days, Wednesdays, and Fridays," there was comparatively little 
intercourse between the city and country. The roads were, at 
times, almost impassable. " On the best lines of communication 
the ruts were deep, the descents precipitous, and the way often such 
as it was hardly possible to distinguish, in the dusk, from the unen- 
closed heath and fen which lay on both sides." To the bad roads 
was added the danger to life from robbers. The mounted high- 
wayman was to be found on every main road. Epping Forest and 
similar places were dangerous in broad daylight, it was customary 



INTRODUCTION. *v 

to make one's will before setting out upon a journey. But these 
difficulties were not confined to the country. So poorly lighted and 
guarded were the streets of London that all kinds of misdemeanors 
were common. The sidewalks were narrow and ill paved. The 
effort " to take the wall " to escape being pushed into the gutter, 
frequently resulted in quarrels which ended in bloodshed. Every- 
where, even in the main thoroughfares, beggars and criminals 
abounded. On the outskirts of the city the sun-dried bodies of exe- 
cuted criminals hung in full view. One old picture shows a corpse 
swinging from a projecting beam near Temple Bar, on the main road 
from London to Westminster, while the people carry on their usual 
business in the street below. 

The amusements of the city were no more ennobling than those 
of the country. Gambling was common, even among women. Many 
young men, losing all their fortune at the gaming table, became 
highway robbers. Brutal sports were common. Cock-fighting, bear- 
baiting, and prize-fighting were among the usual diversions. Of the 
public gardens and walks, to which the " fashionables " resorted, we 
have, a picture in the Spectator's account of " Vauxhall." Nor has 
he forgotten to mention the puppet show, the drama, and the opera. 

Other places of resort were the Coffee Houses and the Clubs. 
Of the former an account is given in the notes. Of the latter the 
most famous were the October Club, the Calves-head Club, and the 
Kit-Cat Club. " The October Club was a political club of high 
Tory proclivities, and it was so called from the ' October Ale ' which 
was supposed to be the drink of its members." The Calves-head 
Club was an opposition club. The Kit-Cat Club received its name 
from one Christopher, who made a kind of " mutton pye," of which 
its members were very fond. Whether Christopher's other name 
was Cat, or whether the second term of the club name was derived 
from the fact that the said Christopher did business at the " sign of 
the Cat and the Fiddle," historians seem unable to decide. It was, 
however, a famous club, and the pictures of its members have come 
down to us from the brush of one Kneller. 

Religious life in the time of Anne was not active in the country, 
as we have seen. It was hardly more so in the city. Addison makes 
Sir Roger say {Spectator, 383) '■ " Church work is slow — church 
work is slow." Much was to be hoped for as the result of the fifty 



xvi THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS. 

new churches, and the foundation of Queen Anne's bounty. In the 
time of the Crusades, a tax of firstfruits and tenths had been im- 
posed for the purpose of prosecuting the Holy Wars, and it had 
not been taken off. Later sovereigns had used it for their own 
purposes. " Had it not been for the strenuous exertions of Bishop 
Burnet with both William and Mary, and afterwards with Queen 
Anne, it might never have reverted to the Church." In 1704, Anne 
made it her birthday present to the nation, saying that it was her 
desire to make " a grant of her whole revenue derived from the 
firstfruits and the tenths for the benefit of the poorer clergy." The 
House of Commons soon made it a law. London was growing 
rapidly, and church building had not kept pace with house building; 
hence the law for the new churches. This became effective in 171 1. 
It is worthy of note that " the tone of the church at that time was 
essentially Protestant ; " that religion and politics were closely asso- 
ciated, as is witnessed by the Conformity Acts ; that while there were 
such remarkable outward manifestations of interest, " the Church 
was asleep." There was " little vitality in the ministrations of 
the priests, little zeal or earnestness as to the spiritual state of those 
committed to their charge " — " at least," Mr. Ashton adds, " in the 
Church of England." There was a strong feeling against the Papists, 
and an almost insane dislike to the Quakers ; while so strong had 
been the feeling against the asceticism of the Puritans, that after 
fifty years of freedom from Puritan rule, " whatever they had re- 
garded with reverence was still insulted, whatever they had pro- 
scribed was favored." 

Under the Commonwealth, the Puritans had exercised great 
severity. The Book of Common Prayer had been interdicted. All 
forms of amusements had been attacked, from the masques which 
were exhibited in the mansions of the great, down to the wrestling 
matches on the village green ; theaters, rope-dancing, the puppet 
shows, bear-baiting, all came under the same ban, for all gave pleas- 
ure to the onlookers. It was ordered that Christmas day should be 
observed by all men as a day of solemn fasting and prayer, bemoan- 
ing their former sinfulness in spending the day in feasting and jol- 
lity. All crimes were to be punished with great severity. What 
wonder that after the Restoration the pendulum swung to the 
other extreme ! The morals and manners of the community became 



INTRODUCTION. ™i 

demoralized ; the tastes and passions which had been repressed 
became ungovernable. Immorality was everywhere ; the politicians 
were corrupt ; the drama was corrupt ; there was " war between wit 
and Puritanism, which soon became a war between wit and moral- 
ity." So hostile did the parties become that the Puritan could see 
no good in the Cavalier, nor could the Cavalier see any good in the 
Roundhead. 

It was the glory of Addison and Steele that they appealed to 
both classes in such a way as to compel attention. The fashionable 
man, as he read, discovered that men of experience, of wisdom con- 
demned his amusements ; that a man may lead a pure life and not 
be so rigid as the Puritan ; that he may be a gentleman and still 
control his appetites. The Puritan found that men of the broadest 
learning, who insisted on the highest moral standards, believed in 
innocent amusements. He found his own rigid views exposed to 
kindly ridicule ; he was forced to admire the good traits in persons 
whom he had before condemned. 

Tory and Whig, country gentleman and city merchant, found 
themselves and the topics they were interested in, presented in the 
same kindly way in these papers ; " the good in no wise extenuated, 
the bad in no wise condoned," and each learned a broader sympathy 
for his fellow man, and acquired higher and nobler ideas of human 
life. 

It is universally agreed that the great middle class is the 
strength of a nation. To this class belonged not only the Puritans, 
who stood steadfastly, though perhaps too austerely, for the noble 
and the pure, but also the great mass of merchants, artisans, and 
yeomen or smaller landholders ; while comparatively uneducated and 
to some extent infected by the vices of the court, these people were 
free from the worse faults. To these also The Spectator appealed ; 
they could read and understand this simple English, and to them 
there came broader views of life, and a new sense of duty to them- 
selves and others. 

But these papers appealed to a new class of readers. For the 
first time women became a part of the great reading public. Not 
many of them were as highly educated as was Sir Roger's client or 
the " perverse widow." In the middle classes, the mother found her 
time fully occupied with household duties. In the higher classes, 



xviii the SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS, 

many spent their time in the most frivolous ways. In society they 
were treated with a certain deference, mingled with much flattery ; 
intellectually, they were not considered the equals of their husbands 
and brothers. There was nothing done for them, nor expected of 
them, that would bring into play the finer feelings, the nobler qual- 
ities of womanhood. Into their lives came these charming papers, 
in which the most common interests and ambitions of everyday life 
were presented in such a way as to excite discussion. Gradually 
the ideals of social life, the charms of grace and goodness, of 
strength and culture which the writers strove to inculcate, entered 
into the home life of the English people, and bore fruit in the more 
beneficent civilization which has become the grandest characteristic 
of modern England. 

Joseph Addison was born May i, 1672, at Milston, in Wilt- 
shire, England. He was the eldest son of Lancelot Addison, a 
clergyman of considerable learning. Of their home life, Steele 
speaks in the highest praise. He says the father's " method was to 
make it the only pretention in his children to his favor, to be kind 
to each other. It was an unspeakable pleasure to visit or sit at a 
meal in that family." 

After some preparation, Addison was sent to the Charterhouse 
School in London, where he first made the acquaintance of Steele. 
In 1687 he entered Queen's College, Oxford, where his Latin poems 
and his fondness for the classical studies soon attracted the atten- 
tion of his teachers. In 1693 he took the degree M. A., and in 
1698 he received a fellowship at Magdalen College. 

His knowledge of the classics also did him good service outside 
the precincts of his beloved University. In 1693 he wrote an ode 
praising Dryden's translations from the classics, which gained for 
him the friendship of that famous poet; in 1695 he composed a 
poetical address to William III., entitled A Poem to His Majesty; 
this was followed, in 1697, by a Latin poem on the Peace of Rys- 
wick. By these poems he attracted the attention of the Whig 
party, which was then in power. Through the influence of Charles 
Montague and Lord Somers, a pension of £ 300 was secured for 
him ; this was to be used in travel on the Continent, which should 
fit him for diplomatic service. While abroad he made the tour of 



INTRODUCTION. xix 

all the principal cities, meeting many of the most prominent literary 
men of his age. Some of these he mentions in his paper, " Sir 
Roger's Client." He also made a careful study of men and insti- 
tutions. 

In 1702 King William died, the Whig party lost its power, and 
Addison lost his pension. In 1703 he returned to England, and 
became a member of the Kit-Cat, a famous Whig club. During his 
absence his father had died, so that just at this time the future 
must have looked very dark to him, but a change soon came. 

In 1704 he was appointed commissioner of appeals, and shortly 
afterwards, the attention of all England was attracted to him by 
the publication of the poem known as The Campaign, which he 
had written at the request of the Lord Treasurer Godolphin. The 
poem commemorates the victory of Marlborough and Prince Eugene, 
at Blenheim. Again he found himself in favor ; later in the same 
year he was appointed under-secretary of state. Other political 
favors followed, and, in 1709, he became chief secretary to the 
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. In the meantime he added to his 
literary fame by producing the opera, Rosamond, and a book called 
The Present State of the War. With the fall of the Whig min- 
istry he lost his position as secretary, but he was re-elected to 
Parliament. Of his re-election, Swift said, " If he had a mind to be 
chosen King, he would hardly be refused." He retained his seat 
in Parliament as long as he lived, but on account of his diffidence, 
he made no speeches. In 171 3 he wrote the tragedy of Cato, which 
brought him great fame throughout Europe. It was acted at Drury 
Lane Theater, and was much quoted by both Whigs and Tories. 
In 1 7 14, when the Whigs returned to power, Addison again became 
secretary for Ireland, and, in 171 7, Secretary of State. This posi- 
tion he resigned in less than a year, on account of failing health. 

He died June 17, 1719, his wife surviving him. Of his life it 
may be said with great truth that his misfortunes never came singly, 
but he bore them with a resignation and cheerfulness that was un- 
failing, and, when near the close of his life, his fortune again 
changed, he still retained his charming personality. At the time of 
his death an estrangement existed between him and Steele, caused 
by a difference of opinion on a bill which had been before Parlia- 
ment. But in the preface to the Drummer, one of Addison's works 



xx THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS. 

published soon after his death, Steele says that he had ever " re- 
joiced in being excelled " by Addison, and was gladly " subservient 
to the qualities of the friend whom he loved." 

The special work of Addison's life, that which achieved for 
him lasting fame, was begun by his contributions to The Tatler in 
1709, and continued in The Spectator from March 1, 1711, to De- 
cember 20, 1 7 14, and later in the Guardian. He was interested in 
other papers, The Whig Examiner, The Freeholder, and The Old 
Whig, but these were political papers. Of Addison's contributions to 
The Tatler, Steele says, " I fared like a distressed prince, who calls 
in a powerful neighbor to his aid. I was undone by my auxiliary. 
... I could not subsist without dependence upon him." In another 
place he says, " The paper was advanced indeed. It was raised to 
a greater thing than I intended it." An earnest student of men 
and institutions, polished by travel, he was especially fitted for 
the task which he took upon himself of assisting his friend Steele. 
As Macaulay says, " It is probable that he had no notion of the 
extent and variety of his own powers. He was the possessor of a 
vast mine, rich with a hundred ores. . . . All at once, and by mere 
accident, he had lighted upon an inexhaustible vein of the finest 
gold. . . . Never had the English language been written with such 
sweetness, grace, and facility. ... As a moral satirist he stands 
unrivalled." In wit he had no superior. " The still higher faculty 
of invention, Addison possessed in still larger measure. ... As 
an observer of life, of manners, of all shades of human character, 
he stands in the first class. . . . He could call human beings into 
existence and make them exhibit themselves." " What shall we 
say of his sense of the ludicrous, his power of awakening that sense 
in others, and of drawing mirth from incidents which occur every 
day, and from little peculiarities of temper and manner such as 
may be found in every man. . . . But his humor is innocent, pure, 
childlike ; ... it never attacks that which the human heart holds 
sacred ; ... it sets wrongs in their proper light ; it gives a clearer 
view of man's powers, duties, obligations." 

Jeremy Collier had launched his pamphlets against the stage, 
but the reaction from the strong Puritanism of the Commonwealth 
still lingered. It was Addison and his co-worker Steele who showed 
that faith and morality were not inconsistent with sparkling wit 
and rich humor. 



INTRODUCTION. xxi 

Richard Steele, or more properly, Sir Richard Steele, was born 
in Dublin, March 12, 1672, and died in September, 1728. His 
parents both died during his early youth, and his uncle, Henry 
Gascoigne, secretary to the Duke of Ormond, became his guardian, 
and provided the means .for his education. He entered the Charter- 
house School two years before Addison, but did not enter Oxford 
until after Addison had been there some time ; then he chose 
Christ's Church College. In 1694, without taking a degree, he left 
Oxford, and enlisted as a private in the Horse Guards, thereby 
losing, as he afterwards said of himself, " the succession to a very 
good estate in Ireland, from the same humor he had since pursued 
of preferring the state of his mind to that of his fortune." 

In 1700 he became Captain Steele, but military duties seem not 
to have interfered with his work as a writer. In 1695 he gained 
his first promotion by writing a patriotic poem on the death of the 
Queen ; this was called The Procession, and was dedicated to Lord 
Cutts, an ardent Whig of military tastes. He was rewarded by 
a commission in Lord Cutts' regiment, and became his secretary. 
In 1701, he wrote his Christian Hero, "in hopes," he says, "that a 
standing testimony against himself might curb his desires and make 
him ashamed of undertaking and seeming to feel what was virtuous, 
and living so contrary a life." Mr. Aitkin says, " We must remem- 
ber that the standard of morality was low even among those who 
considered themselves on a higher moral level than Steele, and that 
his ideal was far above that of most of his contemporaries." With 
a sincere desire to make the world better, Steele wrote several com- 
edies, which, while they are not remarkable as literary productions, 
deserve mention as the first serious effort to better public taste. 

In 1707 he married for his second wife a Welsh lady, Mary 
Scurlock, who is the " Dear Prue " to whom he wrote so many 
interesting letters. He had sokl his commission in the army, had 
been made Gazetteer with a salary of £300, and was also gentleman- 
waiter to Prince George, husband of Queen Anne ; after the death 
of the Prince, he still received the salary as a pension. He was a 
patriot rather than a politician, as may be seen by the fact that he 
gave up several lucrative positions to become a member of Parlia- 
ment. He remained in the House of Commons but a short time. 
When the Whigs came into power upon the accession of George I., 



*di THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS. 

he again entered Parliament, and was knighted. His political career 
closed with the controversy over the Peerage Bill in 1719; from 
conscientious motives he took a stand in opposition to his party. 

All his life financial difficulties had beset him; to this was 
added in his later years serious ill health ; but before the end came, 
all the debts were paid. The last glimpse we have of him comes 
from the actor, Benjamin Victor, who had sought from him an 
introduction to Walpole : " I was told he retained his cheerful sweet- 
ness of temper to the last, and would often be carried out on a 
summer's evening, when the country lads and lasses were assem- 
bled at their rural sports, and with his pencil give an order on his 
agent, the mercer, for a new gown to the best dancer." 

After The Spectator was discontinued, he published The Guar- 
dian, and later The Englishman, a political paper. Of his later 
works, a compilation known as The Ladies' Library, and The Con- 
scious Lovers, his most successful and last literary work, should 
be mentioned. 



Newspapers. In 1695 Parliament failed to appoint the usual 
licenser, without whose leave no book or periodical might be pub- 
lished. This new freedom of the press gave abundant opportunity 
for freedom of expression on all matters of public interest. Po- 
litical leaders eagerly sought out such men of genius as could gain 
the ear of the people, thus a new impetus was given to all kinds of 
journalistic work. Newspapers and periodicals of various kinds 
had long been published. These usually contained not only the 
news, but also essays on morals and other topics of interest. As 
Gazetteer, Steele had access to foreign intelligence more authentic 
than was .within the reach of the ordinary news writer. Doubtless 
this suggested The Tatler. His new venture was to appear three 
times a week on the days the post left London, that is, on Tuesday, 
Thursday, and Saturday. It was to contain foreign news and gossip, 
both theatrical and literary — much the same material that is to 
be found in the modern paper. In size, however, it was a great 
contrast to our modern papers, consisting, as it did, of a single 
half sheet of foolscap size, printed in two columns, on only one side 
of the paper. 

In a satirical pamphlet against one Partridge, an almanac maker, 
Swift had assumed the name of Isaac Bickerstaff. A controversy 



INTRODUCTION. xxiii 

resulted, which made the name so popular and well known that 
Steele decided to use it. He was very careful to conceal his iden- 
tity under the name he had chosen, " Isaac Bickerstaff, astrologer." 

In the first number, he states his purpose to deal with " the 
Town," and particularly with such things as might furnish "entertain- 
ment to the fair sex," in honor of whom he had " invented the title of 
the paper." It was soon evident that the paper had a higher aim, 
so that Steele's dedication to the first complete volume was emi- 
nently fitting : " The general purpose of this paper is to expose the 
false arts of life, to pull off the disguises of cunning, vanity, and 
affectation, and to recommend a general simplicity in our dress, our 
discourse, and our behaviour." 

Addison soon penetrated his friend's disguise, and proffered his 
help. After two hundred seventy-one issues, The Tatler was dis- 
continued to make room for The Spectator. The latter is the result 
of the best efforts of the two men, assisted by several of their 
friends. Of the six hundred thirty-five numbers of The Spectator, 
Addison wrote two hundred seventy-four, Steele two hundred forty, 
Budgell thirty-seven. Addison himself says that the circulation of 
No. 10 reached three thousand, and estimates that each copy was 
read by an average of twenty persons. This paper was not the 
work of any one man, but the result of the best efforts of these two 
friends ; each stimulated the other ; both were moved by the same 
intense desire to leave the world the better for his work. To both 
belong the glory of accomplishing for English thought and life and 
morals that which is usually ascribed to Addison alone. Both were 
actuated by the true spirit of Christianity, and whatever their human 
frailties and the errors resulting therefrom, their work will remain 
an enduring monument to the noble motives, the commanding 
genius, the undaunted Christian loyalty which impelled their com- 
position. 

Eustace Budgell was born August 19, 1686. His mother Mary, 
only daughter of Bishop Gulston of Bristol, was a cousin of Addi- 
son's mother. Eustace Budgell was educated at Oxford, and after- 
wards entered the Inner Temple, and was called to the bar. On 
the accession of George I., he became under-secretary to Addison. 
He committed suicide by drowning at sea, May 4, 1737. He wrote 
a number of pamphlets, besides the papers in The Spectator ascribed 
to him. He was also well known as a Grub Street writer. 



The Sir Roger de Coverley Papers 



I. THE SPECTATOR. 
No. i.] Thursday, March i, 171 1. [Addison. 

Non fumum ex fulgore, sed ex fumo dare lucem 
Cogitat, ut speciosa dehinc miracula promat. 

Hor. 

1 I have observed that a reader seldom peruses a book 
with pleasure till he knows whether the writer of it be 
a black or a fair man, of a mild or choleric disposition, 
married or a bachelor, with other particulars of the like 
nature that conduce very much to the right understanding 
of an author. To gratify this curiosity, which is so 
natural to a reader, I design this paper and my next as 
prefatory discourses to my following writings, and shall 
give some account in them of the several persons that 
are engaged in this work. As the chief trouble of com- 
piling, digesting, and correcting will fall to my share, I 
must do myself the justice to open the work with my own 
history. 

2 I was born to a small hereditary estate, which, ac- 
cording to the tradition of the village where it lies, was 
bounded by the same hedges and ditches in William the 
Conqueror's time that it is at present, and has been 
delivered down from father to son whole and entire, 
without the loss or acquisition of a single field or meadow, 
during the space of six hundred years. There runs a 
story in the family, that my mother dreamt that she was 
brought to bed of a judge: whether this might proceed 



2 THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS. 

from a lawsuit which was then depending in the family, 
or my father's being a justice of the peace, I cannot 
determine; for I am not so vain as to think it presaged 
any dignity that I should arrive at in my future life, 
though that was the interpretation which the neighbor- 
hood put upon it. The gravity of my behavior at my 
very first appearance in the world, and all the time that 
I sucked, seemed to favor my mother's dream; for, as 
she had often told me, I threw away my rattle before I 
was two months old, and would not make use of my 
coral till they had taken away the bells from it. 

3 As for the rest of my infancy, there being nothing in it 
remarkable, I shall pass it over in silence. I find that, 
during my nonage, I had the reputation of a very sullen 
youth, but was always a favorite of my schoolmaster, who 
used to say that my parts were solid and would wear well. 
I had not been long at the university before I distin- 
guished myself by a most profound silence; for during 
the space of eight years, excepting in the public exercises 
of the college, I scarce uttered the quantity of an hundred 
words ; and indeed do not remember that I ever spoke 
three sentences together in my whole life. Whilst I was 
in this learned body, I applied myself with so much dili- 
gence to my studies that there are very few celebrated 
books, either in the learned or the modern tongues, which 
I am not acquainted with. 

, 4 Upon the death of my father, I was resolved to travel 
into foreign countries, and therefore left the university 
with the character of an odd, unaccountable fellow, that 
had a great deal of learning, if I would but show it. An 
insatiable thirst after knowledge carried me into all the 
countries of Europe in which there was anything new or 




A COFFEE-HOUSE. 



4 THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS. 

strange to be seen ; nay, to such a degree was my curi- 
osity raised, that having read the controversies of some 
great men concerning the antiquities of Egypt, I made a 
voyage to Grand Cairo on purpose to take the measure 
of a pyramid ; and as soon as I had set myself right in 
that particular, returned to my native country with great 
satisfaction. 

5 I have passed my latter years in this city, where I am 
frequently seen in most public places, though there are 
not above half a dozen of my select friends that know 
me ; of whom my next paper shall give a more particular 
account. There is no place of general resort wherein I 
do not often make my appearance; sometimes I am seen 
thrusting my head into a round of politicians at Will's, 
and listening with great attention to the narratives that 
are made in those little circular audiences. Sometimes I 
smoke a pipe at Child's, and whilst I seem attentive to 
nothing but the Postman, overhear the conversation of 
every table in the room. I appear on Sunday nights at 
St. James's Coffee-house, and sometimes join the little 
committee of politics in the inner room, as one who comes 
there to hear and improve. My face is likewise very well 
known at the Grecian, the Cocoa Tree, and in the theatres 
both of Drury Lane and the Haymarket. I have been 
taken for a merchant upon the Exchange for above these 
ten years, and sometimes pass for a Jew in the assembly 
of stockjobbers at Jonathan's. In short, wherever I see 
a cluster of people, I always mix with them, though I 
never open my lips but in my own club. 

6 Thus I live in the world rather as a Spectator of man- 
kind than as one of the species ; by which means I have 
made myself a speculative statesman, soldier, merchant, 



THE SPECTATOR. 5 

and artisan, without ever meddling with any practical part 
in life. I am very well versed in the theory of an husband 
or a father, and can discern the errors in the economy, 
business, and diversion of others better than those who 
are engaged in them : as standers-by discover blots which 
are apt to escape those who are in the game. I never 
espoused any party with violence, and am resolved to 
observe an exact neutrality between the Whigs and 
Tories, unless I shall be forced to declare myself by the 
hostilities of either side. In short, I have acted in all the 
parts of my life as a looker-on, which is the character I 
intend to preserve in this paper. 

7 I have given the reader just so much of my history and 
character as to let him see I am not altogether unqualified 
for the business I have undertaken. As for other partic- 
ulars in my life and adventures, I shall insert them in 
following papers as I shall see occasion. In the mean- 
time, when I consider how much I have seen, read, and 
heard, I begin to blame my own taciturnity : and since 
I have neither time nor inclination to communicate the 
fulness of my heart in speech, I am resolved to do it in 
writing, and to print myself out, if possible, before I die. 
I have been often told by my friends that it is pity so 
many useful discoveries which I have made, should be in 
the possession of a silent man. For this reason, there- 
fore, I shall publish a sheetful of thoughts every morning 
for the benefit of my contemporaries; and if I can any 
way contribute to the diversion or improvement of the 
country in which I live, I shall leave it, when I am sum- 
moned out of it, with the secret satisfaction of thinking 
that I have not lived in vain. 

8 There are three very material points which I have not 



6 THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS. 

spoken to in this paper, and which, for several important 
reasons, I must keep to myself, at least for some time : I 
mean, an account of my name, my age, and my lodgings. 
I must confess, I would gratify my reader in anything 
that is reasonable; but, as for these three particulars, 
though I am sensible they might tend very much to the 
embellishment of my paper, I cannot yet come to a resolu- 
tion of communicating them to the public. They would 
indeed draw me out of that obscurity which I have en- 
joyed for many years, and expose me in public places to 
several salutes and civilities, which have been always very 
disagreeable to me; for the greatest pain I can suffer is 
the being talked to and being stared at. It is for this 
reason, likewise, that I keep my complexion and dress as 
very great secrets : though it is not impossible but I may 
make discoveries of both in the' progress of the work I 
have undertaken. 

9 After having been thus particular upon myself, I shall 
in to-morrow's paper give an account of those gentlemen 
who are concerned with me in this work ; for, as I have 
before intimated, a plan of it is laid and concerted — as 
all other matters of importance are — in a club. How- 
ever, as my friends have engaged me to stand in the 
front, those who have a mind to correspond with me may 
direct their letters to the Spectator, at Mr. Buckley's in 
Little Britain. For I must further acquaint the reader 
that, though our club meets only on Tuesdays and Thurs- 
days, we have appointed a committee to sit every night, 
for the inspection of all such papers as may contribute to 
the advancement of the public weal. C. 






THE SPECTATOR CLUB. 



II. THE SPECTATOR CLUB. 
No. 2.] Friday, March 2, 171 1. [Steele. 

Ast alii sex 
Et plures uno conclamant ore. 

Juv. 

1 The first of our society is a gentleman of Worcester- 
shire, of ancient descent, a baronet, his name Sir Roger 
de Coverley. His great-grandfather was inventor of that 
famous country-dance which is called after him. All 
who know that shire are very well acquainted with the 
parts and merits of Sir Roger. He is a gentleman that is 
very singular in his behavior, but his singularities pro- 
ceed from his good sense, and are contradictions to the 
manners of the world only as he thinks the world is in the 
wrong. However, this humor creates him no enemies, 
for he does nothing with sourness or obstinacy; and his 
being unconfined to modes and forms, makes him but the 
readier and more capable to please and oblige all who 
know him. When he is in town, he lives in Soho Square. 
It is said he keeps himself a bachelor by reason he was 
crossed in love by a perverse, beautiful widow of the next 
county to him. Before this disappointment, Sir Roger 
was what you call a fine gentleman; had often supped 
with my Lord Rochester and Sir George Etherege, fought 
a duel upon his first coming to town, and kicked Bully 
Dawson in a public coffee-house for calling him " young- 
ster." But being ill-used by the above-mentioned widow, 
he was very serious for a year and a half; and though, 
his temper being naturally jovial, he at last got over it, 
he grew careless of himself, and never dressed after- 



8 THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS. 

wards. He continues to wear a coat and doublet of the 
same cut that were in fashion at the time of his repulse, 
which, in his merry humors, he tells us, has been in and 
out twelve times since he first wore it. He is now in 
his fifty-sixth year, cheerful, gay, and hearty; keeps a 
good house in both town and country; a great lover of 
mankind ; but there is such a mirthful cast in his behavior 
that he is rather beloved than esteemed. His tenants 
grow rich, his servants look satisfied, all the young 
women profess love to him, and the young men are glad 
of his company. When he comes into a house, he calls 
the servants by their names, and talks all the way up- 
stairs to a visit. I must not omit that Sir Roger is a jus- 
tice of the quorum; that he fills the chair at a quarter 
session with great abilities ; and, three months ago, gained 
universal applause by explaining a passage in the Game 
Act. 

2 The gentleman next in esteem and authority among us 
is another bachelor, who is a member of the Inner Tem- 
ple ; a man of great probity, wit, and understanding ; but 
he has chosen his place of residence rather to obey the 
direction of an old humorous father, than in pursuit of 
his own inclinations. He was placed there to study the 
laws of the land, and is the most learned of any of the 
house in those of the stage. Aristotle and Longinus are 
much better understood by him than Littleton or Coke. 
The father sends up, every post, questions relating to mar- 
riage articles, leases, and tenures, in the neighborhood ; 
all which questions he agrees with an attorney to answer 
and take care of in the lump. He is studying the passions 
themselves, when he should be inquiring into the debates 
among men which arise from them. He knows the argu- 



THE SPECTATOR CLUB. g 

merit of each of the orations of Demosthenes and Tully 
but not one case in the reports of our own courts. No 
one ever took him for a fool, but none, except his intimate 
friends, know he has a great deal of wit. This turn makes 
him at once both disinterested and agreeable; as few of 
his thoughts are drawn from business, they are most of 
them fit for conversation. His taste of books is a little 
too just for the age he lives in ; he has read all, but ap- 
proves of very few. His familiarity with the customs, 
manners, actions, and writings of the ancients makes him 
a very delicate observer of what occurs to him in the pres- 
ent world. He is an excellent critic, and the time of the 
play is his hour of business; exactly at five he passes 
through New Inn, crosses through Russell Court, and 
takes a turn at Will's till the play begins ; he has his shoes 
rubbed and his periwig powdered at the barber's as you 
go into the Rose. It is for the good of the audience when 
he is at a play, for the actors have an ambition to please 
him. 

3 The person of next consideration is Sir Andrew Free- 
port, a merchant of great eminence in the city of London ; 
a person of indefatigable industry, strong reason, and 
great experience. His notions of trade are noble and gen-' 
erous, and — as every rich man has usually some sly way 
of jesting which would make no great figure were he not 
a rich man — he calls the sea the British Common. He 
is acquainted with commerce in all its parts, and will 
tell you that it is a stupid and barbarous way to extend 
dominion by arms ; for true power is to be got by arts and 
industry. He will often argue that if this part of our 
trade were well cultivated, we should gain from one na- 
tion; and if another, from another. I have heard him 



io THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS. 

prove that diligence makes more lasting acquisitions 
than valor, and that sloth has ruined more nations than 
the sword. He abounds in several frugal maxims, 
amongst which the greatest favorite is, " A penny saved 
is a penny got." A general trader of good sense is 
pleasanter company than a general scholar; and Sir 
Andrew having a natural, unaffected eloquence, the per- 
spicuity of his discourse gives the same pleasure that wit 
would in another man. He has made his fortunes him- 
self, and says that England may be richer than other 
kingdoms by as plain methods as he himself is richer than 
other men; though at the same time I can say this of 
him, that there is not a point in the compass but blows 
home a ship in which he is an owner. 
4 Next to Sir Andrew in the club-room sits Captain 
Sentry, a gentleman of great courage, good understand- 
ing, but invincible modesty. He is one of those that 
deserve very well, but are very awkward at putting their 
talents within the observation of such as should take 
notice of them. He was some years a captain, and be- 
haved himself with great gallantry in several engage- 
ments and at several sieges ; but having a small estate of 
his own, and being next heir to Sir Roger, he has quitted 
a way of life in which no man can rise suitably to his 
merit who is not something of a courtier as well as a 
soldier. I have heard him often lament that in a profes- 
sion where merit is placed in so conspicuous a view, im- 
pudence should get the better of modesty. When he has 
talked to this purpose I never heard him make a sour 
expression, but frankly confess that he left the world 
because he was not fit for it. A strict honesty and an 
even, regular behavior are in themselves obstacles to him 



THE SPECTATOR CLUB. n 

that must press through crowds who endeavor at the same 
end with himself, — the favor of a commander. He will, 
however, in this way of talk, excuse generals for not 
disposing according to men's desert, or inquiring into it. 
" For," says he, " that great man who has a mind to help 
me, has as many to break through to come at me as I 
have to come at him ; " therefore he will conclude that 
the man who would make a figure, especially in a military 
way, must get over all false modesty, and assist his patron 
against the importunity of other pretenders by a proper 
assurance in his own vindication. He says it is a civil 
cowardice to be backward in asserting what you ought to 
expect, as it is a military fear to be slow in attacking when 
it is your duty. With this candor does the gentleman 
speak of himself and others. The same frankness runs 
through all his conversation. The military part of his 
life has furnished him with many adventures, in the rela- 
tion of which he is very agreeable to the company; for 
he is never overbearing, though accustomed to command 
men in the utmost degree below him; nor ever too obse- 
quious from an habit of obeying men highly above him. 
5 But that our society may not appear a set of humorists 
unacquainted with the gallantries and pleasures of the 
age, we have among us the gallant Will Honeycomb, a 
gentleman who, according to his years, should be in the 
decline of his life, but having ever been very careful of 
his person, and always had a very easy fortune, time has 
made but very little impression either by wrinkles on his 
forehead or traces in his brain. His person is well turned 
and of a good height. He is very ready at that sort of 
discourse with which men usually entertain women. He 
has all his life dressed very well, and remembers habits as 



12 THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS. 

others do men. He can smile when one speaks to him, 
and laughs easily. He knows the history of every mode, 
and can inform you from which of the French king's 
wenches our wives and daughters had this manner of curl- 
ing their hair, that way of placing their hoods ; and whose 
vanity to show her foot made that part of the dress so 
short in such a year. In a word, all his conversation and 
knowledge has been in the female world. As other men 
of his age will take notice to you what such a minister 
said upon such • and such an occasion, he will tell you 
when the Duke of Monmouth danced at court such a 
woman was then smitten, another was taken with him at 
the head of his troop in the Park. In all these important 
relations, he has ever about the same time received a kind 
glance or a blow of a fan from some celebrated beauty, 
mother of the present Lord Such-a-one. If you speak of 
a young commoner that said a lively thing in the House, 
he starts up : "He has good blood in his veins ; that 
young fellow's mother used me more like a dog than any 
woman I ever made advances to." This way of talking 
of his very much enlivens the conversation among us of 
a more sedate turn; and I find there is not one of the 
company but myself, who rarely speak at all, but speaks 
of him as of that sort of man who is usually called a well- 
bred, fine gentleman. To conclude his character, where 
women are not concerned he is an honest, worthy man. 
6 I cannot tell whether I am to account him whom I am 
next to speak of as one of our company, for he visits us 
but seldom; but when he does, it adds to every man else 
a new enjoyment of himself. He is a clergyman, a very 
philosophic man, of general learning, great sanctity of 
life, and the most exact good breeding. He has the mis- 



SIR ROGER MORALIZES. 13 

fortune to be of a very weak constitution, and conse- 
quently cannot accept of such cares and business as 
preferments in his function would oblige him to ; he is 
therefore among divines what a chamber-counsellor is 
among lawyers. The probity of his mind and the integ- 
rity of his life create him followers, as being eloquent or 
loud advances others. He seldom introduces the subject 
he speaks upon ; but we are so far gone in years that he 
observes, when he is among us, an earnestness to have 
him fall on some divine topic, which he always treats with 
much authority, as one who has no interests in this world, 
as one who is hastening to the object of all his wishes, 
and conceives hope from his decays and infirmities. 
These are my ordinary companions. R. 

III. SIR ROGER MORALIZES. 
No. 6.] Wednesday, March 7, 171 1. [Steele. 

Credebant hoc grande nefas et morte piandum, 
Si iuvenis vetulo non assurrexerat. 

Juv. 

1 I know no evil under the sun so great as the abuse of 
the understanding, and yet there is no one vice more 
common. It has diffused itself through both sexes and 
all qualities of mankind, and there is hardly that person 
to be found who is not more concerned for the reputation 
of wit and sense, than honesty and virtue. But this 
unhappy affectation of being wise rather than honest, 
witty than good-natured, is the source of most of the ill 
habits of life. Such false impressions are owing to the 
abandoned writings of men of wit, and the awkward 
imitation of the rest of mankind. 



14 THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS. 

2 For this reason, Sir Roger was saying last night that 
he was of opinion that none but men of fine parts deserve 
to be hanged. The reflections of such men are so deli- 
cate upon all occurrences which they are concerned in, 
that they should be exposed to more than ordinary infamy 
and punishment for offending against such quick admoni- 
tions as their own souls give them, and blunting the fine 
edge of their minds in such a manner that they are no 
more shocked at vice and folly than men of slower capaci- 
ties. There is no greater monster in being, than a very 
ill man of great parts. He lives like a man in a palsy, 
with one side of him dead. While perhaps he enjoys the 
satisfaction of luxury, of wealth, of ambition, he has lost 
the taste of good-will, of friendship, of innocence. Scare- 
crow, the beggar in Lincoln's Inn Fields, who disabled 
himself in his right leg, and asks alms all day to get him- 
self a warm supper at night, is not half so despicable a 
wretch as such a man of sense. The beggar has no rel- 
ish above sensations; he finds rest more agreeable than 
motion, and while he has a warm fire, never reflects that 
he deserves to be whipped. 

3 " Every man who terminates his satisfaction and enjoy- 
ments within the supply of his own necessities and pas- 
sions, is," says Sir Roger, " in my eye, as poor a rogue as 
Scarecrow. But," continued he, " for the loss of public 
and private virtue we are beholden to your men of parts, 
forsooth ; it is with them no matter what is done, so it is 
done with an air. But to me, who am so whimsical in 
a corrupt age as to act according to nature and reason, 
a selfish man in the most shining circumstances and equi- 
page, appears in the same condition with the fellow above- 
mentioned, but more contemptible in proportion to what 



SIR ROGER MORALIZES. 15 

more he robs the public of and enjoys above him. I lay 
it down therefore for a rule, that the whole man is to 
move together; that every action of any importance is 
to have a prospect of public good; and that the general 
tendency of our indifferent actions ought to be agreeable 
to the dictates of reason, of religion, of good-breeding. 
Without this, a man, as I have before hinted, is hopping 
instead of walking; he is not in his entire and proper 
motion." 

4 While the honest knight was thus bewildering himself 
in good starts, I looked intentively upon him, which made 
him, I thought, collect his mind a little. " What I aim 
at," says he, " is to represent that I am of opinion, to 
polish our understandings and neglect our manners is of 
all things the most inexcusable. Reason should govern 
passion, but instead of that, you see, it is often subserv- 
ient to it; and as unaccountable as one would think it, 
a wise man is not always a good man." 

5 This degeneracy is not only the guilt of particular per- 
sons, but also at some times of a whole people; and per- 
haps it may appear upon examination that the most polite 
ages are the least virtuous. This may be attributed to 
the folly of admitting wit and learning as merit in them- 
selves, without considering the application of them. By 
this means it becomes a rule not so much to regard what 
we do, as how we do it. But this false beauty will not 
pass upon men of honest minds and true taste. Sir Rich- 
ard Blackmore says, with as much good sense as virtue, 
— " It is a mighty dishonor and shame to employ excel- 
lent faculties and abundance of wit, to humor and please 
men in their vices and follies. The great enemy of 
mankind, notwithstanding his wit and angelic faculties, 



r6 THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS. 

is the most odious being in the whole creation." He goes 
on soon after to say, very generously, that he undertook 
the writing of his poem " to rescue the Muses, ... to 
restore them to their sweet and chaste mansions, and to 
engage them in an employment suitable to their dignity." 
This certainly ought to be the purpose of every man who 
appears in public; and whoever does not proceed upon 
that foundation, injures his country as fast as he succeeds 
in his studies. When modesty ceases to be the chief 
ornament of one sex and integrity of the other, society 
is upon a wrong basis, and we shall be ever after without 
rules to guide our judgment in what is really becoming 
and ornamental. Nature and reason direct one thing, 
passion and humor another. To follow the dictates of 
these two latter, is going into a road that is both endless 
and intricate; when we pursue the other, our passage is 
delightful, and what we aim at easily attainable. 

6 I do not doubt but England is at present as polite a 
nation as any in the world ; but any man who thinks, can 
easily see that the affectation of being gay and in fashion 
has very near eaten up our good sense and our religion. 
Is there anything so just, as that mode and gallantry 
should be built upon exerting ourselves in what is proper 
and agreeable to the institutions of justice and piety 
among us ? And yet is there anything more common, than 
that we run in perfect contradiction to them ? All which 
is supported by no other pretension than that it is done 
with what we call a good grace. 

7 Nothing ought to be held laudable or becoming, but 
what nature itself should prompt us to think so. Respect 
to all kind of superiors is founded, methinks, upon in- 
stinct ; and yet what is so ridiculous as age ? I make this 



SIR ROGER MORALIZES. 17 

abrupt transition to the mention of this vice more than any 
other, in order to introduce a little story, which I think 
a pretty instance that the most polite age is in danger 
of being the most vicious. 

8 It happened at Athens, during a public representation 
of some play exhibited in honor of the commonwealth, 
that an old gentleman came too late for a place suitable 
to his age and quality. Many of the young gentlemen 
who observed the difficulty and confusion he was in, made 
signs to him that they would accommodate him if he 
came where they sat. The good man bustled through 
the crowd accordingly ; but when he came to the seats to 
which he was invited, the jest was to sit close and expose 
him, as he stood out of countenance, to the whole audi- 
ence. The frolic went round all the Athenian benches. 
But on those occasions there were also particular places 
assigned for foreigners. When the good man skulked 
towards the boxes appointed for the Lacedemonians, that 
honest people, more virtuous than polite, rose up all, to 
a man, and with the greatest respect received him among 
them. The Athenians, being suddenly touched with a 
sense of the Spartan virtue and their own degeneracy, 
gave a thunder of applause ; and the old man cried out, 
" The Athenians understand what is good, but the Lace- 
demonians practice it ! " R. 



18 THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS. 



IV. CLUB CONCESSIONS. 
No. 34.] Monday, April 9, 171 1. [Addison. 

Parcit 
Cognatis maculis similis f era — 

Juv. 

1 The club of which I am a member is very luckily com- 
posed of such persons as are engaged in different ways 
of life, and deputed, as it were, out of the most conspic- 
uous classes of mankind. By this means I am furnished 
with the greatest variety of hints and materials, and know 
everything that passes in the different quarters and divi- 
sions, not only of this great city, but of the whole king- 
dom. My readers, too, have the satisfaction to find that 
there is no rank or degree among them who have not 
their representative in this club, and that there is always 
somebody present who will take care of their respective 
interests, that nothing may be written or published to 
the prejudice or infringement of their just rights and 
privileges. 

2 I last night sat very late in company with this select 
body of friends, who entertained me with several remarks 
which they and others had made upon these my specula- 
tions, as also with the various success which they had met 
with among their several ranks and degrees of readers. 
Will Honeycomb told me, in the softest manner he could, 
that there were some ladies — " but for your comfort," 
says Will, "they are not those of the most wit" — that 
were offended at the liberties I had taken with the opera 
and the puppet-show; that some of them were likewise 
very much surprised that I should think such serious 



CLUB CONCESSIONS. 19 

points as the dress and equipage of persons of quality 
proper subjects for raillery. 

3. He was going on, when Sir Andrew Freeport took him 
up short, and told him that the papers he hinted at had 
done great good in the city, and that all their wives and 
daughters were the better for them; and further added, 
that the whole city thought themselves very much obliged 
to me for declaring my generous intentions to scourge 
vice and folly as they appear in a multitude, without con- 
descending to be a publisher of particular intrigues. " In 
short," says Sir Andrew, " if you avoid that foolish beaten 
road of falling upon aldermen and citizens, and employ 
your pen upon the vanity and luxury of courts, your paper 
must needs be of general use." 

4 Upon this my friend the Templar told Sir Andrew that 
he wondered to hear a man of his sense talk after that 
manner; that the city had always been the province for 
satire; and that the wits of King Charles's time jested 
upon nothing else during his whole reign. He then 
showed by the examples of Horace, Juvenal, Boileau, 
and the best writers of every age, that the follies of the 
stage and court had never been accounted too sacred for 
ridicule, how great soever the persons might be that pat- 
ronized them. " But after all," says he, " I think your 
raillery has made too great an excursion, in attacking 
several persons of the Inns of Court; and I do not be- 
lieve you can show me any precedent for your behavior 
in that particular." 

5 My good friend Sir Roger de Coverley, who had said 
nothing at all this while, began his speech with a " Pish ! " 
and told us that he wondered to see so many men of sense 
so very serious upon fooleries. " Let our good friend," 



20 THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS. 



says he, " attack every one that deserves it ; I would only 
advise you, Mr. Spectator/' — applying himself to me, — 
" to take care how you meddle with country squires. 
They are the ornaments of the English nation, — men of 
good heads and sound bodies ! and, let me tell you, some 




Lincoln's Inn Gateway. 

of them take it ill of you that you mention fox hunters 
with so little respect." 

6 Captain Sentry spoke very sparingly on this occasion. 
What he said was only to commend my prudence in not 
touching upon the army, and advised me to continue to 
act discreetly in that point. 

7 By this time I found every subject of my speculations 



CLUB CONCESSIONS. 21 

was taken away from me by one or other of the club, and 
began to think myself in the condition of the good man 
that had one wife who took a dislike to his grey hairs, and 
another to his black, till by their picking out what each 
of them had an aversion to, they left his head altogether 
bald and naked. 

8 While I was thus musing with myself, my worthy 
friend the clergyman, who, very luckily for me, was at the 
club that night, undertook my cause. He told us that he 
wondered. any order of persons should think themselves 
too considerable to be advised. That it was not quality, 
but innocence, which exempted men from reproof. That 
vice and folly ought to be attacked wherever they could be 
met with, and especially when they were placed in high 
and conspicuous stations of life. He further added, that 
my paper would only serve to aggravate the pains of 
poverty, if it chiefly exposed those who are already de- 
pressed, and in some measure turned into ridicule, by the 
meanness of their conditions and circumstances. He 
afterwards proceeded to take notice of the great use this 
paper might be of to the public, by reprehending those 
vices which are too trival for the chastisement of the law, 
and too fantastical for the cognizance of the pulpit. He 
then advised me to prosecute my undertaking with cheer- 
fulness, and assured me, that whoever might be displeased 
with me, I should be approved by all those whose praises 
do honor to the persons on whom they are bestowed. 

9 The whole club pays a particular deference to the dis- 
course of this gentleman, and are drawn into what he 
says, as much by the candid and ingenuous manner with 
which he delivers himself, as by the strength of argument 
and force of reason which he makes use of. Will Honey- 



22 THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS. 

comb immediately agreed that what he had said was right, 
and that, for his part, he would not insist upon the quarter 
which he had demanded for the ladies. Sir Andrew gave 
up the city with the same frankness. The Templar would 
not stand out, and was followed by Sir Roger and the 
Captain, — who all agreed that I should be at liberty to 
carry the war into what quarter I pleased, provided I con- 
tinued to combat with criminals in a body, and to assault 
the vice without hurting the person. 

10 This debate, which was held for the good of mankind, 
put me in mind of that which the Roman triumvirate were 
formerly engaged in for their destruction. Every man at 
first stood hard for his friend, till they found that by this 
means they should spoil their proscription ; and at length, 
making a sacrifice of all their acquaintance and relations, 
furnished out a very decent execution. 

11 Having thus taken my resolutions to march on boldly 
in the cause of virtue and good sense, and to annoy their 
adversaries in whatever degree or rank of men they may 
be found, I shall be deaf for the future to all the remon- 
strances that shall be made to me on this account. If 
Punch grows extravagant, I shall reprimand him very 
freely. If the stage becomes a nursery of folly and im- 
pertinence, I shall not be afraid to animadvert upon it. 
In short, if I meet with anything in city, court, or country, 
that shocks modesty or good manners, I shall use my 
utmost endeavors to make an example of it. I must, 
however, intreat every particular person who does me the 
honor to be a reader of this paper, never to think himself, 
or any one of his friends or enemies, aimed at in what is 
said : for I promise him, never to draw a faulty character 
which does not fit a thousand people; or to publish a 



SIR ROGER'S CLIENT. 



2 3 



single paper that is not written in the spirit of benevo- 
lence and with a love to mankind. C. 

V. SIR ROGER'S CLIENT. 
No. 37.] Thursday, April 12, 171 1. [Addison. 

Non ilia colo calathisve Minervae 
Femineas assueta manus. . . . 

Virg. 

1 Some months ago, my friend Sir Roger, being in the 
country, enclosed a letter to me, directed to a certain lady 
whom I shall here call by the name of Leonora, and as it 
contained matters of consequence, desired me to deliver it 
to her with my own hand. Accordingly I waited upon 
her ladyship pretty early in the morning, and was desired 
by her woman to walk into her lady's library, till such 
time as she was in a readiness to receive me. The very 
sound of " a lady's library " gave me a great curiosity to 
see it; and as it was some time before the lady came 
to me, I had an opportunity of turning over a great many 
of her books, which were ranged together in a very beauti- 
ful order. At the end of the folios, which were finely 
bound and gilt, were great jars of china placed one above 
another in a very noble piece of architecture. The quartos 
were separated from the octavos by a pile of smaller ves- 
sels, which rose in a delightful pyramid. The octavos 
were bounded by tea-dishes of all shapes, colors, and 
sizes, which were so disposed on a wooden frame that they 
looked like one continued pillar indented with the finest 
strokes of sculpture and stained with the greatest variety 
of dyes. 



24 THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS. 

2 That part of the library which was designed for the 
reception of plays and pamphlets, and other loose papers, 
was enclosed in a kind of square, consisting of one of the 
prettiest grotesque works that ever I saw, and made up 
of scaramouches, lions, monkeys, mandarins, trees, shells, 
and a thousand other odd figures in china ware. In the 
midst of the room was a little japan table, with a quire of 
gilt paper upon it, and on the paper a silver snuff box 
made in the shape of a little book. I found there were 
several other counterfeit books upon the upper shelves, 
which were carved in wood, and served only to fill up the 
number, like fagots in the muster of a regiment. I was 
wonderfully pleased with such a mixed kind of furniture 
as seemed very suitable both to the lady and the scholar, 
and did not know, at first, whether I should fancy myself 
in a grotto or in a library. 

3 Upon my looking into the books, I found there were 
some few which the lady had bought for her own use; 
but that most of them had been got together, either 
because she had heard them praised, or because she 
had seen the authors of them. Among several that I 
examined, I very well remember these that follow : 

Ogilby's " Virgil." 

Dryden's " Juvenal." 

" Cassandra." 

" Cleopatra." 

" Astraea." 

Sir Isaac Newton's works. 

" The Grand Cyrus," with a pin stuck in one of the 
middle leaves. 

Pembroke's "Arcadia." 

Locke of " Human Understanding," with a paper of 
patches in it. 



SIR ROGER'S CLIENT. 25 

A spelling book. 

A dictionary for the explanation of hard words. 

Sherlock upon " Death." 

" The Fifteen Comforts of Matrimony." 

Sir William Temple's " Essays." 

Father Malebranche's " Search after Truth," translated 
into English. 

A book of novels. 

" The Academy of Compliments." 

" The Ladies' Calling." 

" Tales in Verse," by Mr. D'Urfey ; bound in red 
leather, gilt on the back, and doubled down in several 
places. 

All the classic authors in wood. 

A set of Elzevirs by the same hand. 

" Clelia," which opened of itself in the place that 
describes two lovers in a bower. 

Baker's " Chronicle." 

" Advice to a Daughter." 

" The New Atalantis," with a key to it. 

Mr. Steele's " Christian Hero." 

A prayer-book ; with a bottle of Hungary water by the 
side of it. 

Dr. Sacheverell's Speech. 

Fielding's Trial. 

Seneca's " Morals." 

Taylor's " Holy Living and Dying." 

La Ferte's " Instructions for Country Dances." 
4 I was taking a catalogue in my pocket-book of these 
and several other authors, when Leonora entered, and 
upon my presenting her with the letter from the knight, 
told me, with an unspeakable grace, that she hoped Sir 



26 THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS. 

Roger was in good health. I answered, " Yes," for I 
hate long speeches, and after a bow or two retired. 

5 Leonora was formerly a celebrated beauty, and is still 
a very lovely woman. She has been a widow for two or 
three years, and being unfortunate in her first marriage, 
has taken a resolution never to venture upon a second. 
She has no children to take care of, and leaves the man- 
agement of her estate to my good friend Sir Roger. But 
as the mind naturally sinks into a kind of lethargy, and 
falls asleep, that is not agitated by some favorite pleasures 
and pursuits, Leonora has turned all the passions of her 
sex into a love of books and retirement. She converses 
chiefly with men, — as she has often said herself, — but 
it is only in their writings ; and admits of very few male 
visitants except my friend Sir Roger, whom she hears 
with great pleasure and without scandal. 

6 As her reading has lain very much among romances, 
it has given her a very particular turn of thinking, and 
discovers itself even in her house, her gardens, and her 
furniture. Sir Roger has entertained me an hour together 
with a description of her country seat, which is situated in 
a kind of wilderness, about an hundred miles distant from 
London, and looks like a little enchanted palace. The 
rocks about her are shaped into artificial grottoes covered 
with woodbines and jessamines. The woods are cut into 
shady walks, twisted into bowers, and filled with cages of 
turtles. The springs are made to run among pebbles, 
and by that means taught to murmur very agreeably. 
They are likewise collected into a beautiful lake that is 
inhabited by a couple of swans, and empties itself by a 
little rivulet which runs through a green meadow, and is 
known in the family by the name of the Purling Stream, 



SIR ROGER'S CLIENT. 27 

7 The knight likewise tells me that this lady preserves 
her game better than any of the gentlemen in the country. 
" Not," says Sir Roger, " that she sets so great a value 
upon her partridges and pheasants, as upon her larks and 
nightingales ; for she says that every bird which is killed 
in her ground will spoil a consort, and that she shall 
certainly miss him the next year." 

8 When I think how oddly this lady is improved by learn- 
ing, I look upon her with a mixture of admiration and 
pity. Amidst these innocent entertainments which she 
has formed to herself, how much more valuable does she 
appear than those of her sex who employ themselves in 
diversions that are less reasonable, though more in fash- 
ion. What improvements would a woman have made, 
who is so susceptible of impressions from what she reads, 
had she been guided to such books as have a tendency to 
enlighten the understanding and rectify the passions, as 
well as to those which are of little more use than to divert 
the imagination. 

9 But the manner of a lady's employing herself usefully 
in reading shall be the subject of another paper, in which 
I design to recommend such particular books as may be 
proper for the improvement of the sex. And as this 
is a subject of a very nice nature, I shall desire my 
correspondents to give me their thoughts upon it. C. 



2 8 THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS. 

VI. COVERLEY HALL. 
No. 106.] Monday, July 2, 171 1. [Addison. 

Hinc tibi copia 
Manabit ad plenum benigno 
Ruris honorum opulenta cornu. 

Hor. 

1 Having often received an invitation from my friend 
Sir Roger de Coverley to pass away a month with him in 
the country, I last week accompanied him thither, and am 
settled with him for some time at his country house, where 

1 intend to form several of my ensuing speculations. Sir 
Roger, who is very well acquainted with my humor, lets 
me rise and go to bed when I please, dine at his own 
table or in my chamber, as I think fit, sit still and say 
nothing without bidding me be merry. When the gentle- 
men of the country come to see him, he only shows me at 
a distance. As I have been walking in his fields I have 
observed them stealing a sight of me over an hedge, and 
have heard the knight desiring them not to let me see 
them, for that I hated to be stared at. 

2 I am the more at ease in Sir Roger's family because it 
consists of sober and staid persons ; for, as the knight is 
the best master in the world, he seldom changes his serv- 
ants ; and as he is beloved by all about him, his servants 
never care for leaving him; by this means his domestics 
are all in years, and grown old with their master. You 
would take his valet de chambre for his brother, his butler 
is gray-headed, his groom is one of the gravest men that 
I have ever seen, and his coachman has the looks of a 
privy counsellor. You see the goodness of the master 



COVERLEY HALL. 



29 



even in the old house dog, and in a gray pad that is kept 
in the stable with great care and tenderness out of regard 
to his past services, though he has been useless for several 
years. 

3 I could not but observe with a great deal of pleasure 
the joy that appeared in the countenances of these ancient 
domestics upon my friend's arrival at his country seat. 
Some of them could not refrain from tears at the sight of 
their old master; every one of them pressed forward to 
do something for him, and seemed discouraged if they 
were not employed. At the same time the good old 
knight, with a mixture of the father and the master of 
the family, tempered the inquiries after his own affairs 
with several kind questions relating to themselves. This 
humanity and good nature engages everybody to him, so 
that when he is pleasant upon any of them, all his family 
are in good humor, and none so much as the person whom 
he diverts himself with ; on the contrary, if he coughs, or 
betrays any infirmity of old age, it is easy for a stander-by 
to observe a secret concern in the looks of all of his 
servants. ^ 

4 My worthy friend has put me under the particular care 
of his butler, who is a very prudent man, and, as well as 
the rest of his fellow-servants, wonderfully desirous of 
pleasing me, because they have often heard their master 
talk of me as of his particular friend. 

5 My chief companion, when Sir Roger is diverting him- 
self in the woods or the fields, is a very venerable man 
who is ever with Sir Roger, and has lived at his house in 
the nature of a chaplain above thirty years. This gentle- 
man is a person of good sense and some learning, of a 
very regular life and obliging conversation; he heartily 



3 o THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS. 

loves Sir Roger, and knows that he is very much in the 
old knight's esteem, so that he lives in the family rather as 
a relation than a dependant. 

6 I have observed in several of my papers, that my friend 
Sir Roger, amidst all his good qualities, is something of 
an humorist, and that his virtues as well as imperfections 
are, as it were, tinged by a certain extravagance which 
makes them particularly his, and distinguishes them from 
those of other men. This cast of mind, as it is gener- 
ally very innocent in itself, so it renders his conversation 
highly agreeable, and more delightful than the same 
degree of sense and yirtue would appear in their common 
and ordinary colors. As I was walking with him last 
night, he asked me how I liked the good man whom I 
have just now mentioned; and without staying for my 
answer, told me that he was afraid of being insulted with 
Latin and Greek at his own table, for which reason he 
desired a particular friend of his at the university to find 
him out a clergyman, rather of plain sense than much 
learning, of a good aspect, a clear voice, a sociable tem- 
per, and, if possible, a man that understood a little of 
backgammon. " My friend," says Sir Roger, " found me 
out this gentleman, who, besides the endowments required 
of him, is, they tell me, a good scholar, though he does 
not show it. I have given him the parsonage of the 
parish, and, because I know his value, have settled upon 
him a good annuity for life. If he outlives me, he shall 
find that he was higher in my esteem than perhaps he 
thinks he is. He has now been with me thirty years, 
and though he does not know I have taken notice of 
it, has never in all that time asked anything of me for 
himself, though he is every day soliciting me for some- 



COVERLEY HALL. 31 

thing in behalf of one or other of my tenants, his parish- 
ioners. There has not been a lawsuit in the parish since 
he has lived among them : if any dispute arises they apply 
themselves to him for the decision ; if they do not acqui- 
esce in his judgment, — which I think never happened 
above once or twice at most, — they appeal to me. At his 
first settling with me, I made him a present of all the 
good sermons which have been printed in English, and 
only begged of him that every Sunday he would pro- 
nounce one of them in the pulpit. Accordingly he has 
digested them into such a series that they follow one 
another naturally, and make a continued system of prac- 
tical divinity. 

7 As Sir Roger was going on in his story, the gentleman 
we were talking of came up to us ; and upon the knight's 
asking him who preached to-morrow (for it was Saturday 
night), told us the Bishop of St. Asaph in the morning 
and Dr. South in the afternoon. He then showed us his 
list of preachers for the whole year, where I saw, with 
a great deal of pleasure, Archbishop Tillotson, Bishop 
Saunderson, Dr. Barrow, Dr. Calamy, with several living 
authors who have published discourses of practical divin- 
ity. I no sooner saw this venerable man in the pulpit but 
I very much approved of my friend's insisting upon the 
qualifications of a good aspect and a clear voice; for I 
was so charmed with the gracefulness of his figure and 
delivery, as well as with the discourses he pronounced, 
that I think I never passed any time more to my satisfac- 
tion. A sermon repeated after this manner is like the 
composition of a poet in the mouth of a graceful actor. 

8 I could heartily wish that more of our country clergy 
would follow this example ; and instead of wasting their 



32 THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS. 

spirits in laborious compositions of their own, would 
endeavor after a handsome elocution, and all those other 
talents that are proper to enforce what has been penned 
by greater masters. This would not only be more easy to 
themselves, but more edifying tothe people. L. 

VII. THE COVERLEY HOUSEHOLD. 
No. 107.] Tuesday, July 3, 1711. [Steele. 

iEsopo ingentem statuam posuere Attici 
Servumque collocarunt aeterna in basi, 
Patere honoris scirent ut cuncti viam. 

Ph^:d. 

1 The reception, manner of attendance, undisturbed free- 
dom and quiet, which I meet with here in the country, has 
confirmed me in the opinion I always had, that the general 
corruption of manners in servants is owing to the conduct 
of masters. The aspect of every one in the family carries 
so much satisfaction that it appears he knows the happy 
lot which has befallen him in being a member of it. There 
is one particular which I have seldom seen but at Sir 
Roger's : it is usual in all other places that servants fly 
from the parts of the house through which their master 
is passing; on the contrary, here, they industriously place 
themselves in his way ; and it is on both sides, as it were, 
understood as a visit, when the servants appear without 
calling. This proceeds from the humane and equal tem- 
per of the man of the house, who also perfectly well knows 
how to enjoy a great estate with such economy as ever 
to be much beforehand. This makes his own mind un- 
troubled, and consequently unapt to vent peevish expres- 



THE COVERLEY HOUSEHOLD. 33 

sions, or give passionate or inconsistent orders to those 
about him. Thus respect and love go together; and a 
certain cheerfulness in performance of their duty is the 
particular distinction of the lower part of this family. 
When a servant is called before his master, he does not 
come with an expectation to hear himself rated for some 
trivial fault, threatened to be stripped, or used with any 
other unbecoming language, which mean masters often 
give to worthy servants; but it is often to know what 
road he took that he came so readily back according to 
order ; whether he passed by such a ground ; if the old 
man who rents it is in good health; or whether he gave 
Sir Roger's love to him, or the like. 

2 A man who preserves a respect founded on his benevo- 
lence to his dependants lives rather like a prince than a 
master in his family; his orders are received as favors, 
rather than duties ; and the distinction of approaching 
him is part of the reward for executing what is com- 
manded by him. 

3 There is another circumstance in which my friend 
excels in his management, which is the manner of reward- 
ing his servants. He has ever been of opinion that giving 
his cast clothes to be worn by valets has a very ill effect 
upon little minds, and creates a silly sense of equality 
between the parties, in persons affected only with outward 
things. I have heard him often pleasant on this occasion, 
and describe a young gentleman abusing his man in that 
coat which a month or two before was the most pleasing 
distinction he w r as conscious of in himself. He would turn 
his discourse still more pleasantly upon the ladies' boun- 
ties of this kind ; and I have heard him say he knew 
a fine woman who distributes rewards and punish- 

3 



34 THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS. 

ments in giving becoming or unbecoming dresses to her 
maids. 

4 But my good friend is above these little instances of 
good-will, in bestowing only trifles on his servants; a 
good servant to him is sure of having it in his choice very 
soon of being no servant at all. As I before observed, 
he is so good an husband, and knows so thoroughly that 
the skill of the purse is the cardinal virtue of this life,— *> 
I say, he knows so well that frugality is the support of 
generosity, that he can often spare a large fine when a 
tenement falls, and give that settlement to a good servant 
who has a mind to go into the world, or make a stranger 
pay the fine to that servant, for his more comfortable 
maintenance, if he stays in his service. 

5 A man of honor and generosity considers it would be 
miserable to himself to have no will but that of another, 
though it were of the best person breathing, and for that 
reason goes on as fast as he is able to put his servants 
into independent livelihoods. The greatest part of Sir 
Roger's estate is tenanted by persons who have served 
himself or his ancestors. It was to me extremely pleas- 
ant to observe the visitants from several parts to welcome 
his arrival into the country; and all the difference that I 
could take notice of between the late servants who came 
to see him and those who stayed in the family, was that 
these latter were looked upon as finer gentlemen and 
better courtiers. 

6 This manumission and placing them in a way of liveli- 
hood I look upon as only what is due to a good servant, 
which encouragement will make his successor be as dili- 
gent, as humble, and as ready as he was. There is some- 
thing wonderful in the narrowness of those minds which 



THE COVERLEY HOUSEHOLD. 35 

can be pleased, and be barren of bounty to those who 
please them. 

7 One might, on this occasion, recount the sense that great 
persons in all ages have had of the merit of their depend- 
ants, and the heroic services which men have done their 
masters in the extremity of their fortunes, and shown to 
their undone patrons that fortune was all the difference 
between them; but as I design this my speculation only 
as a gentle admonition to thankless masters, I shall not 
go out of the occurrences of common life, but assert it, as 
a general observation, that I never saw, but in Sir Roger's 
family and one or two more, good servants treated as they 
ought to be. Sir Roger's kindness extends to their chil- 
dren's children, and this very morning he sent his coach- 
man's grandson to prentice. I shall conclude this paper 
with an account of a picture in his gallery, where there 
are many which will deserve my future observation. 

8 At the very upper end of this handsome structure I saw 
the portraiture of two young men standing in a river, — 
the one naked, the other in a livery. The person sup- 
ported seemed half dead, but still so much alive as to 
show in his face exquisite joy and love towards the other. 
I thought the fainting figure resembled my friend Sir 
Roger ; and, looking at the butler, who stood by me, fos 
an account of it, he informed me that the person in the 
livery was a servant of Sir Roger's, who stood on the 
shore while his master was swimming, and observing him 
taken with some sudden illness, and sink under water, 
jumped in and saved him. He told me Sir Roger took off 
the dress he was in as soon as he came home, and by a 
great bounty at that time, followed by his favor ever since, 
had made him master of that pretty seat which we saw at 






36 THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS. 

a distance as we came to this house. I remembered indeed 
Sir Roger said there lived a very worthy gentleman, to 
whom he was highly obliged, without mentioning any- 
thing further. Upon my looking a little dissatisfied at 
some part of the picture, my attendant informed me that 
it was against Sir Roger's will, and at the earnest request 
of the gentleman himself, that he was drawn in the habit 
in which he had saved his master. R. 



VIII. WILL WIMBLE. 
No. 108.] Wednesday, July 4, 171 1. [Addison. 

Gratis anhelans, multa agendo nihil agens. 

Ph^ed 

1 As I was yesterday morning walking with Sir Roger 
before his house, a country fellow brought him a huge 
fish, which, he told him, Mr. William Wimble had caught 
that very morning; and that he presented it with his 
service to him, and intended to come and dine with him. 
At the same time he delivered a letter, which my friend 
read to me as soon as the messenger left him. 



" Sir Roger, 
2 " I desire you to accept of a jack, which is the best I 
have caught this season. I intend to come and stay with 
you a week, and see how the perch bite in the Black River. 
I observed with some concern, the last time I saw you 
upon the bowling green, that your whip wanted a lash to 
it ; I will bring half a dozen with me that I twisted last 
week, which hope will serve you all the time you are in 



WILL WIMBLE. 37 

the country. I have not been out of the saddle for six 
days last past, having been at Eton with Sir John's eldest 
son. He takes to his learning hugely. 

" I am, sir, your humble servant, 

Will Wimble." 



1 This extraordinary letter, and message that accom- 
panied it, made me very curious to know the character 
and quality of the gentleman who sent them, which I 
found to be as follows. Will Wimble is younger brother 
to a baronet, and descended of the ancient family of the 
Wimbles. He is now between forty and fifty, but, being 
bred to no business and born to no estate, he generally 
lives with his elder brother as superintendent of his game. 
He hunts a pack of dogs better than any man in the 
country, and is very famous for finding out a hare. He 
is extremely well versed in all the little handicrafts of an 
idle man ; he makes a may-fly to a miracle, and furnishes 
the whole country with angle-rods. As he is a good- 
natured, officious fellow, and very much esteemed upon 
account of his family, he is a welcome guest at every 
house, and keeps up a good correspondence among all 
the gentlemen about him. He carries a tulip-root in his 
pocket from one to another, or exchanges a puppy between 
a couple of friends that live perhaps in the opposite sides 
of the country. Will is a particular favorite of all the 
young heirs, whom he frequently obliges with a net that 
he has weaved, or a setting-dog that he has made himself. 
He now and then presents a pair of garters of his own 
knitting to their mothers or sisters, and raises a great deal 
of mirth among them by inquiring, as often as he meets 
them, how they wear. These gentlemen-like manufac- 



3§ THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS. 

tures and obliging little humors make Will the darling of 
the country. 

4 Sir Roger was proceeding in the character of him, when 
he saw him make up to us with two or three hazel twigs 
in his hand that he had cut in Sir Roger's woods, as he 
came through them, in his way to the house. I was very 
much pleased to observe on one side the hearty and 
sincere welcome with which Sir Roger received him, and 
on the other, the secret joy which his guest discovered at 
sight of the good old knight. After the first salutes were 
over, Will desired Sir Roger to lend him one of his serv- 
ants to carry a set of shuttlecocks he had with him in 
a little box to a lady that lived about a mile off, to whom 
it seems he had promised such a present for above this 
half year. Sir Roger's back was no sooner turned but 
honest Will began to tell me of a large cock-pheasant that 
he had sprung in one of the neighboring woods, with two 
or three other adventures of the same nature. Odd and 
uncommon characters are the game that I look for and 
most delight in ; for which reason I was as much pleased 
with the novelty of the person that talked to me as he 
could be for his life with the springing of a pheasant, 
and therefore listened to him with more than ordinary 
attention. 

5 In the midst of his discourse the bell rung to dinner, 
where the gentleman I have been speaking of had the 
pleasure of seeing the huge jack he had caught, served 
up for the first dish in a most sumptuous manner. Upon 
our sitting down to it, he gave us a long account how he 
had hooked it, played with it, foiled it, and at length drew 
it out upon the bank, with several other particulars that 
lasted all the first course. A dish of wild fowl that came 






WILL WIMBLE. 



39 



afterwards furnished conversation for the rest of the din- 
ner, which concluded with a late invention of Will's for 
improving the quail-pipe. 

6 Upon Withdrawing into my room after dinner, I was 
secretly touched with compassion towards the honest 
gentleman that had dined with us, and could not but con- 
sider, with a great deal of concern, how so good an heart 
and such busy hands were wholly employed in trifles ; that 
so much humanity should be so little beneficial to others, 
and so much industry so little advantageous to himself. 
The same temper of mind arid application to affairs might 
have recommended him to the public esteem, and have 
raised his fortune in another station of life. What good 
to his country or himself might not a trader or merchant 
have done with such useful though ordinary qualifica- 
tions ? 

7 Will Wimble's is the case of many a younger brother 
of a great family, who had rather see their children starve 
like gentlemen than thrive in a trade or profession that is 
beneath their quality. This humor fills several parts of 
Europe with pride and beggary. It is the happiness of a 
trading nation, like ours, that the younger sons, though 
uncapable of any liberal art or profession, may be placed 
in such a way of life as may perhaps enable them to vie 
with the best of their family. Accordingly, we find 
several citizens that were launched into the world with 
narrow fortunes, rising by an honest industry to greater 
estates than those of their elder brothers. It is not im- 
probable but Will was formerly tried at divinity, law, or 
physic ; and that finding his genius did not lie that way, 
his parents gave him up at length to his own inventions. 
But certainly, however improper he might have been for 



40 THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS. 

studies of a higher nature, he was perfectly well turned 
for the occupations of trade and commerce. As I think 
this is a point which cannot be too much inculcated, I 
shall desire my reader to compare what I have here writ- 
ten, with what I have said in my twenty-first speculation. 

L. 

IX. THE COVERLEY ANCESTRY. 
No. 109.] Thursday, July 5, 171 1. [Steele. 

Abnormis sapiens. 

Hor. 

1 I was this morning walking in the gallery, when Sir 
Roger entered at the end opposite to me, and, advancing 
towards me, said he was glad to meet me among his rela- 
tions, the de Coverleys, and hoped I liked the conversation 
of so much good company, who were as silent as myself. 

1 knew he alluded to the pictures ; and, as he is a gentle- 
man who does not a little value himself upon his ancient 
descent, I expected he would give me some account of 
them. We were now arrived at the upper end of the gal- 
lery, when the knight faced towards one of the pictures, 
and, as we stood before it, he entered into the matter, 
after his blunt way of saying things as they occur to 
his imagination, without regular introduction or care to 
preserve the appearance of chain of thought. 

2 " It is," said he, " worth while to consider the force of 
dress, and how the persons of one age differ from those 
of another merely by that only. One may observe, also, 
that the general fashion of one age has been followed by 
one particular set of people in another, and by them pre- 



THE COVERLEY ANCESTRY. 41 

served from one generation to another. Thus, the vast 
jetting coat and small bonnet, which was the habit in 
Harry the Seventh's time, is kept on in the yoemen of the 
guard ; not without a good and politic view, because they 
look a foot taller, and a foot and an half broader ; besides 
that the cap leaves the face expanded, and consequently 
more terrible, and fitter to stand at the entrance of 
palaces. 

3 " This predecessor of ours, you see, is dressed after 
this manner, and his cheeks would be no larger than 
mine, were he in a hat as I am. He was the last man 
that won a prize in the Tilt-yard, which is now a common 
street before Whitehall. You see the broken lance tha«t 
lies there by his right foot. He shivered that lance of his 
adversary all to pieces ; and, bearing himself — look you, 
sir — in this manner, at the same time he came within 
the target of the gentleman who rode against him, and 
taking him with incredible force before him on the pom- 
mel of his saddle, he in that manner rid the tournament 
over, with an air that showed he did it rather to perform 
the rule of the lists than expose his enemy. However, it 
appeared he knew how to make use of a victory; and, 
with a gentle trot, he marched up to a gallery where their 
mistress sat, — for they were rivals, — and let him down 
with laudable courtesy and pardonable insolence. I don't 
know but it might be exactly where the coffee-house is 
now. 

4 ." You are to know this my ancestor was not only of a 
military genius, but fit also for the arts of peace ; for he 
played on the bass viol as well as any gentleman at 
court. You see where his viol hangs by his basket-hilt 
sword. The action at the Tilt-yard you may be sure won 



THE COVERLEY ANCESTRY. 43 

the fair lady, who was a maid of honor, and the greatest 
beauty of her time. There she stands, the next picture. 
You see, sir, my great-great-great-grandmother has on the 
new-fashioned petticoat, except that the modern is gath- 
ered at the waist; my grandmother appears as if she 




A Lady's Costume, 1735. 

stood in a large drum, whereas the ladies now walk as if 
they were in a go-cart. For all this lady was bred at 
court, she became an excellent country wife ; she brought 
ten children; and, when I show you the library, you shall 
see, in her 'own hand, allowing for the difference of the 
language, the best receipt now in England both for an 
hasty-pudding and a white-pot. 



44 THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS. 



5 " If you please to fall back a little, — because 'tis neces- 
sary to look at the three next pictures at one view, — these 
are three sisters. She on the right hand, who is so very 
beautiful, died a maid; the next to her, still handsomer, 




Costume of Anne of Denmark, d. 1618. 

had the same fate, against her will ; this homely thing in 
the middle had both their portions added to her own, and 
was stolen by a neighboring gentleman, a man of strata- 
gem and resolution, for he poisoned three mastiffs to come 
at her, and knocked down two deer-stealers in carrying 
her off. Misfortunes happen in all families. The theft 
of this romp and so much money was no great matter to 



THE COVERLEY ANCESTRY. 45 

our estate. But the next heir that possessed it was this 
soft gentleman, whom you see there; observe the small 
buttons, the little boots, the laces, the slashes about his 
clothes, and above all, the posture he is drawn in, — 
which to be sure was his own choosing. You see he sits 
with one hand on a desk, writing and looking as it were 
another way, like an easy writer or a sonneteer. He was 
one of those that had too much wit to know how to live in 
the world; he was a man of no justice, but great good 
manners; he ruined everybody that had anything to do 
with him, but never said a rude thing in his life; the 
most indolent person in the world, he would sign a deed 
that passed away half his estate, with his gloves on, but 
would not put on his hat before a lady if it were to save 
his country. He is said to be the first that made love by 
squeezing the hand. He left the estate with ten thou- 
sand pounds' debt upon it; but, however, by all hands I 
have been informed that he was every way the finest 
gentleman in the world. That debt lay heavy on our 
house for one generation; but it was retrieved by a gift 
from that honest man you see there, a citizen of our 
name, but nothing at all akin to us. I know Sir Andrew 
Freeport has said behind my back that this man was 
descended from one of the ten children of the maid o: 
honor I showed you above; but it was never made out. 
We winked at the thing, indeed, because money was 
wanting at that time." 

6 Here I saw my friend a little embarrassed, and turned 
my face to the next portraiture. 

7 Sir Roger went on with his account of the gallery in 
the following manner : " This man " — pointing to him I 
looked at — " I take to be the honor of our house, Sir 



46 THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS. 

Humphrey de Coverley. He was, in his dealings, as 
punctual as a tradesman and as generous as a gentleman. 
He would have thought himself as much undone by break- 
ing his word as if it were to be followed by bankruptcy. 
He served his country as knight of this shire to his dying 
day. He found it no easy matter to maintain an integrity 
in his words and actions, even in things that regarded the 
offices which were incumbent upon him in the care of his 
own affairs and relations of life, and therefore dreaded, 
though he had great talents, to go into employments of 
state, where he must be exposed to the snares of ambition. 
Innocence of life and great ability were the distinguishing 
parts of his character; the latter, he had often observed, 
had led to the destruction of the former, and used fre- 
quently to lament that great and good had not the same 
signification. He was an excellent husbandman, but had 
resolved not to exceed such a degree of wealth ; all above 
it he bestowed in secret bounties many years after the 
sum he aimed at for his own use was attained. Yet he 
did not slacken his industry, but to a decent old age 
spent the life and fortune which was superfluous to him- 
self, in the service of his friends and neighbors." 

8 Here we were called to dinner; and Sir Roger ended 
the discourse of this gentleman by telling me, as we fol- 
lowed the servant, that this his ancestor was a brave man, 
and narrowly escaped being killed in the Civil Wars; 
" for," said he, " he was sent out of the field upon a 
private message the day before the battle of Worcester." 

9 The whim of narrowly escaping by having been within 
a day of danger, with other matters above mentioned, 
mixed with good sense, left me at a loss whether I was 
more delighted with my friend's wisdom or simplicity. 

R. 



THE COVERLEY GHOST. 47 

X. THE COVERLEY GHOST. 
No. no.] Friday, July 6, 171 1. [Addison. 

Horror ubique animos, simul ipsa silentia terrent. 

Virg. 

1 At a little distance from Sir Roger's house, among the 
ruins of an old abbey, there is a long walk of aged elms, 
which are shot up so very high that, when one passes 
under them, the rooks and crows that rest upon the tops 
of them seem to be cawing in another region. I am very 
much delighted with this sort of noise, which I consider 
as a kind of natural prayer to that Being who supplies 
the wants of His whole creation, and who, in the beauti- 
ful language of the Psalms, feedeth the young ravens that 
call upon Him. I like this retirement the better, because 
of an ill report it lies under of being haunted ; for which 
reason, as I have been told in the family, no living crea- 
ture ever walks in it besides the chaplain. My good 
friend the butler desired me, with a very grave face, not 
to venture myself in it after sunset, for that one of the 
footmen had been almost frighted out of his wits by a 
spirit that appeared to him in the shape of a black horse 
without an head; to which he added, that about a month 
ago one of the maids coming home late that way, with a 
pail of milk upon her head, heard such a rustling among 
the bushes that she let it fall. 

2 I was taking a walk in this place last night between 
the hours of nine and ten, and could not but fancy it one 
of the most proper scenes in the world for a ghost to 
appear in. The ruins of the abbey are scattered up and 
down on every side, and half covered with ivy and elder 



48 THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS. 

bushes, the harbors of several solitary birds which seldom 
make their appearance till the dusk of the evening. The 
place was formerly a church-yard, and has still several 
marks in it of graves and burying-places. There is such 
an echo among the old ruins and vaults that, if you stamp 
but a little louder than ordinary, you hear the sound 
repeated. At the same time the walk of elms, with the 
croaking of the ravens which from time to time are heard 
from the tops of them, looks exceeding solemn and ven- 
erable. These objects naturally raise seriousness and 
attention ; and when night heightens the awfulness of the 
place, and pours out her supernumerary horrors upon 
everything in it, I do not at all wonder that weak minds 
fill it with spectres and apparitions. 

3 Mr. Locke, in his chapter of the Association of Ideas, 
has very curious remarks to show how, by the prejudice 
of education, one idea often introduces into the mind a 
whole set that bear no resemblance to one another in the 
nature of things. Among several examples of this kind, 
he produces the following instance : " The ideas of gob- 
lins and sprites have really no more to do with darkness 
than light ; yet, let but a foolish maid inculcate these often 
on the mind of a child, and raise them there together, pos- 
sibly he shall never be able to separate them again so long 
as he lives, but darkness shall ever afterwards bring with 
it those frightful ideas, and they shall be so joined that 
he can no more bear the one than the other." 

4 As I was walking in this solitude, where the dusk of 
the evening conspired with so many other occasions of 
terror, I observed a cow grazing not far from me, which 
an imagination that is apt to startle might easily have 
construed into a black horse without an head ; and I dare 



THE COVERLEY GHOST. 49 

say the poor footman lost his wits upon some such trivial 
occasion. 

5 My friend Sir Roger has often told me, with a great 
deal of mirth, that at his first coming to his estate, he 
found three parts of his house altogether useless ; that 
the best room in it had the reputation of being haunted, 
and by that means was locked up; that noises had been 
heard in this long gallery, so that he could not get a serv- 
ant to enter it after eight o'clock at night; that the door 
of one of his chambers was nailed up because there went 
a story in the family that a butler had formerly hanged 
himself in it; and that his mother, who lived to a great 
age, had shut up half the rooms in the house, in which 
either her husband, a son, or daughter had died. The 
knight, seeing his habitation reduced to so small a 
compass and himself in a manner shut out of his own 
house, upon the death of his mother ordered all the apart- 
ments to be flung open and exorcised by his chaplain, 
who lay in every room one after another, and by that 
means dissipated the fears which had so long reigned in 
the family. 

6 I should not have been thus particular upon these ridic- 
ulous horrors, did not I find them so very much prevail in 
all parts of the country. At the same time, I think a per- 
son who is thus terrified with the imagination of ghosts 
and spectres much more reasonable than one who 2 con- 
trary to the reports of all historians, sacred and profane, 
ancient and modern, and to the traditions of all nations, 
thinks the appearance of spirits fabulous and groundless. 
Could not I give myself up to this general testimony of 
mankind, I should to the relations of particular persons 
who are now living, and whom I cannot distrust in other 



50 THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS. 

matters of fact. I might here add, that not only the his- 
torians, to whom we may join the poets, but likewise 
the philosophers of antiquity have favored this opinion. 
Lucretius himself, though by the course of his philosophy 
he was obliged to maintain that the soul did not exist 
separate from the body, makes no doubt of the reality of 
apparitions, and that men have often appeared after their 
death. This I think very remarkable ; he was so pressed 
with the matter of fact which he could not have the con- 
fidence to deny, that he was forced to account for it by 
one of the most absurd unphilosophical notions that was 
ever started. He tells us that the surfaces of all bodies 
are perpetually flying off from their respective bodies one 
after another; and that these surfaces or thin cases that 
included each other, whilst they were joined in the body, 
like the coats of an onion, are sometimes seen entire when 
they are separated from it; by which means we often 
behold the shapes and shadows of persons who are either 
dead or absent. 

7 I shall dismiss this paper with a story out of Josephus, 
not so much for the sake of the story itself as for the 
moral reflections with which the author concludes it, and 
which I shall here set down in his own words : 

8 " Glaphyra, the daughter of King Archelaus, after the 
death of her two first husbands, — being married to a 
third, who was brother to her first husband, and so pas- 
sionately in love with her that he turned off his former 
wife to make room for this marriage, — had a very odd 
kind of dream. She fancied that she saw her first hus- 
band coming towards her, and that she embraced him with 
great tenderness ; when in the midst of the pleasure which 
she expressed at the sight of him, he reproached her after 
the following manner : 



A COVERLBY SUNDAY. 51 

9 " ' Glaphyra,' says he, ' thou hast made good the old 
saying that women are not to be trusted. Was not I the 
husband of thy virginity? Have I not children by thee? 
How couldst thou forget our loves so far as to enter into 
a second marriage, and after that into a third ? . . . How- 
ever, for the sake of our past loves I shall free thee from 
thy present reproach and make thee mine for ever.' 

10 " Glaphyra told this dream to several women of her 
acquaintance, and died soon after. 

11 "I thought this story might not be impertinent in this 
place wherein I speak of those kings. Besides that the 
example deserves to be taken notice of, as it contains a 
most certain proof of the immortality of the soul, and of 
divine providence. If any man thinks these facts incred- 
ible, let him enjoy his own opinion to himself, but let him 
not endeavor to disturb the belief of others, who by 
instances of this nature are excited to the study of virtue." 

L. 

XI. A COVERLEY SUNDAY. 
No. 112.] Monday, July 9, 171 1. [Addison. 

'AOavdrovs /xev rrpiora Oeovs, vo/xw ws Sta/ceiTou, 

Tt>a. 

Pyth. 

1 I am always very well pleased with a country Sunday, 
and think, if keeping holy the seventh day were only a 
human institution, it would be the best method that could 
have been thought of for the polishing and civilizing of 
mankind. It is certain the. country people would soon 
degenerate into a kind of savages and barbarians were 
there not such frequent returns of a stated time, in which 



52 THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS. 

the whole village meet together with their best faces, and 
in their cleanliest habits, to converse with one another 
upon indifferent subjects, hear their duties explained to 
them, and join together in adoration of the Supreme Be- 
ing. Sunday clears away the rust of the whole week, not 
only as it refreshes in their mind the notions of religion, 
but as it puts both the sexes upon appearing in their most 
agreeable forms, and exerting all such qualities as are apt 
to give them a figure in the eye of the village. A coun- 
try fellow distinguishes himself as much in the church- 
yard as a citizen does upon the Change, the whole parish 
politics being generally discussed at that place, either 
after sermon or before the bell rings. 

2 My friend Sir Roger, being a good churchman, has 
beautified the inside of his church with several texts of 
his own choosing; he has likewise given a handsome 
pulpit cloth, and railed in the communion table at his 
own expense. He has often told me that; at his coming 
to his estate, he found his parishioners very irregular; 
and that in order to make them kneel and join in the 
responses, he gave every one of them a hassock and a 
Common Prayer Book, and at the same time employed an 
itinerant singing-master, who goes about the country for 
that purpose, to instruct them rightly in the tunes of the 
Psalms; upon which they now very much value them- 
selves, and indeed outdo most of the country churches 
that I have ever heard. 

3 As Sir Roger is landlord to the whole congregation, he 
keeps them in very good order, and will suffer nobody to 
sleep in it besides himself; for, if by chance he has been 
surprised into a short nap at sermon, upon recovering out 
of it he stands up and looks about him, and, if he sees 



A COVERLEY SUNDAY. 53 

anybody else nodding, either wakes them himself, or 
sends his servant to them. Several other of the old 
knight's particularities break out upon these occasions: 
sometimes he will be lengthening out a verse in the sing- 
ing Psalms half a minute after the rest of the congrega- 
tion have done with it; sometimes, when he is pleased 
with the matter of his devotion, he pronounces " Amen " 
three or four times to the same prayer ; and sometimes 
stands up when everybody else is upon their knees, to 
count the congregation, or see if any of his tenants are 
missing. 

4 I was yesterday very much surprised to hear my old 
friend, in the midst of the service, calling out to one John 
Matthews to mind what he was about, and no'; disturb 
the congregation. This John Matthews, it seems, is 
remarkable for being an idle fellow, and at that time was 
kicking his heels for his diversion. This authority of the 
knight, though exerted in that odd manner which accom- 
panies him in all circumstances of life, has a very good 
effect upon the parish, who are not polite enough to see 
anything ridiculous in his behavior ; besides that the gen- 
eral good sense and worthiness of his character makes his 
friends observe these little singularities as foils that rather 
set off than blemish his good qualities. 

5 As soon as the sermon is finished, nobody presumes to 
stir till Sir Roger is gone out of the church. The knight 
walks down from his seat in the chancel between a double 
row of his tenants, that stand bowing to him on each side, 
and every now and then inquires how such an one's wife, 
or mother, or son, or father do, whom he does not see at 
church, — which is understood as a secret reprimand to 
the person that is absent. 



54 THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS. 

6 The chaplain has often told me that, upon a catechising 
day, when Sir Roger had been pleased with a boy that 
answers well, he has ordered a Bible to be given him next 
day for his encouragement, and sometimes accompanies 
it with a flitch of bacon to his mother. Sir Roger has 
likewise added five pounds a year to the clerk's place; 
and, that he may encourage the young fellows to make 
themselves perfect in the church service, has promised, 
upon the death of the present incumbent, who is very 
old, to bestow it according to merit. 

7 The fair understanding between Sir Roger and his 
chaplain and their mutual concurrence in doing good, is 
the more remarkable because the very next village is 
famous for the differences and contentions that rise be- 
tween the parson and the squire, who live in a perpetual 
state of war. The parson is always preaching at the 
squire, and the squire, to be revenged on the parson, never 
comes to church. The squire has made all his tenants 
atheists and tithe stealers ; while the parson instructs them 
every Sunday in the dignity of his order, and insinuates 
to them in almost every sermon that he is a better man 
than his patron. In short, matters are come to such an 
extremity that the squire has not said his prayers either 
in public or private this half year; and that the parson 
threatens him, if he does not mend his manners, to pray 
for him in the face of the whole congregation. 

8 Feuds of this nature, though too frequent in the coun- 
try, are very fatal to the ordinary people, who are so used 
to be dazzled with riches that they pay as much defer- 
ence to the understanding of a man of an estate as of a 
man of learning; and are very hardly brought to regard 
any truth, how important soever it may be, that is 



SIR ROGER IN LOVE. 



55 



preached to them, when they know there are several men 
of five hundred a year who do not believe it. L. 

XII. SIR ROGER IN LOVE. 
No. 113.] Tuesday, July 10, 171 1. [Steele. 

Haerent infixi pectore vultus. 

Virg. 

1 In my first description of the company in which I pass 
most of my time, it may be remembered that I mentioned 
d great affliction which my friend Sir Roger had met with 
in his youth, — which was no less than a disappointment in 
love. It happened this evening that we fell into a very 
pleasing walk at a distance from his house. As soon as 
we came into it, " It is," quoth the good old man, looking 
round him with a smile, " very hard that any part of my 
land should be settled upon one who has used me so ill as 
the perverse widow did; and yet I am sure I could not 
see a sprig of any bough of this whole walk of trees but I 
should reflect upon her and her severity. She has cer- 
tainly the finest hand of any woman in the world. You 
are to know this was the place wherein I used to muse 
upon her; and by that custom I can never come into it 
but the same tender sentiments revive in my mind, as if 
I had actually walked with that beautiful creature under 
these shades. I have been fool enough to carve her name 
on the bark of several of these trees; so unhappy is the 
condition of men in love to attempt the removing of their 
passion by the methods which serve only to imprint it 
deeper. She has certainly the finest hand of any woman 
in the world." 



56 THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS. 

2 Here followed a profound silence; and Iwas not dis- 
pleased to observe my friend falling so naturally into a 
discourse which I had ever before taken notice he indus- 
triously avoided. After a very long pause, he entered 
upon an account of this great circumstance in his life, 
with an air which I thought raised my idea of him above 
what I had ever had before ; and gave me the picture of 
that cheerful mind of his before it received that stroke 
which has ever since affected his words and actions. But 
he went on as follows : 

3 " I came to my estate in my twenty-second year, and 
resolved to follow the steps of the most worthy of my 
ancestors who have inhabited this spot of earth before 
me, in all tlie methods of hospitality and good neighbor- 
hood, for the sake of my fame, and in country sports and 
recreations, for the sake of my health. In my twenty- 
third year I was obliged to serve as sheriff of the county ; 
and in my servants, officers, and whole equipage, indulged 
the pleasure of a young man, who did not think ill of his 
own person, in taking that public occasion of showing my 
figure and behavior to advantage. You may easily imagine 
to yourself what appearance I made, who am pretty tall, 
rid well, and was very well dressed, at the head of a whole 
county, with music before me, a feather in my hat, and 
my horse well bitted. I can assure you I was not a little 
pleased with the kind looks and glances I had from all 
the balconies and windows, as I rode to the hall where 
the assizes were held. But when I came there, a beauti- 
ful creature in a widow's habit sat in court, to hear the 
event of a cause concerning her dower. This command- 
ing creature (who was born for destruction of all who 
behold her) put on such a resignation in her countenance, 



SIR ROGER IN LOVE. 57 

and bore the whimpers of all around the court with such 
a pretty uneasiness, I warrant you, and then recovered 
herself from one eye to another, till she was perfectly con- 
fused by meeting something so wistful in all she encoun- 
tered, that at last, with a murrain to her, she cast her 
bewitching eye upon me. I no sooner met it but I bowed 
like a great surprised booby ; and, knowing her cause to 
be the first which came on, I cried, like a captivated calf 
as I was, 'Make way for the defendant's witnesses !' This 
sudden partiality made all the county immediately see the 
sheriff also was become a slave to the fine widow. Dur- 
ing the time her cause was upon trial, she behaved her- 
self, I warrant you, with such a deep attention to her 
business, took opportunities to have little billets handed 
to her counsel, then would be in such a pretty confusion, 
occasioned, you must know, by acting before so much 
company, that not only I but the whole court was preju- 
diced in her favor ; and all that the next heir to her hus- 
band had to urge was thought so groundless and frivolous 
that, when it came to her counsel to reply, there was not 
half so much said as every one besides in the court thought 
he could have urged to her advantage. You must under- 
stand, sir, this perverse woman is one of those unaccount- 
able creatures that secretly rejoice in the admiration of 
men, but indulge themselves in no further consequences. 
Hence it is that she has ever had a train of admirers, 
and she removes from her slaves in town to those in 
the country, according to the seasons of the year. She 
is a reading lady, and far gone in the pleasures of 
friendship; she is always accompanied by a confidante, 
who is witness to her daily protestations against our 
sex, and consequently a bar to her first steps towards 



58 THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS. 

love, upon the strength of her own maxims and dec- 
larations. 

4 " However, I must needs say this accomplished mis- 
tress of mine has distinguished me above the rest, and 
has been known to declare Sir Roger de Coverley was 
the tamest and most human of all the brutes in the coun- 
try. I was told she said so by one who thought he rallied 
me; but, upon the strength of this slender encourage- 
ment of being thought least detestable, I made new liver- 
ies, new-paired my coach-horses, sent them all to town to 
be bitted and taught to throw their legs well and move 
all together, before I pretended to cross the country and 
wait upon her. As soon as I thought my retinue suitable 
to the character of my fortune and youth, I set out from 
hence to make my addresses. The particular skill of this 
lady has ever been to inflame your wishes and yet com- 
mand respect. To make her mistress of this art, she has 
a greater share of knowledge, wit, and good sense than is 
usual even among men of merit. Then she is beautiful 
beyond the race of women. If you won't let her go on 
with a certain artifice with her eyes, and the skill of 
beauty, she will arm herself with her real charms, and 
strike you with admiration instead of desire. It is certain 
that, if you were to behold the whole woman, there is that 
dignity in her aspect, that composure in her motion, that 
complacency in her manner, that if her form makes you 
hope, her merit makes you fear. But then again, she is 
such a desperate scholar that no country gentleman can 
approach her without being a jest. As I was going to tell 
you, when I came to her house I was admitted to her pres- 
ence with great civility ; at the same time she placed her- 
self to be first seen by me in such an attitude, as I think 



SIR ROGER IN LOVE. 59 

you call the posture of a picture, that she discovered new 
charms, and I at last came towards her with such an awe 
as made me speechless. This she no sooner observed but 
she made her advantage of it, and began a discourse to me 
concerning love and honor, as they both are followed 
by pretenders, and the real votaries to them. When she 
had discussed these points in a discourse which I verily 
believe was as learned as the best philosopher in Europe 
could possibly make, she asked me whether she was so 
happy as to fall in with my sentiments on these important 
particulars. Her confidante sat by her, and upon my 
being in the last confusion and silence, this malicious aid 
of hers, turning to her, says, ' I am very glad to observe 
Sir Roger pauses upon this subject, and seems resolved 
to deliver all his sentiments upon the matter when he 
pleases to speak.' They both kept their countenances, 
and after I had sat half an hour meditating how to behave 
before such profound casuists, I rose up and took my 
leave. Chance has since that time thrown me very often 
in her way, and she as often has directed a discourse to 
me which I do not understand. This barbarity has kept 
me ever at a distance from the most beautiful object my 
eyes ever beheld. It is thus also she deals with all man- 
kind, and you must make love to her, as you would con- 
quer the sphinx, by posing her. But were she like other 
women, and that there were any talking to her, how con- 
stant must the pleasure of that man be who could con- 
verse with a creature — But, after all, you may be sure 
her heart is fixed on some one or other; and yet I have 
been credibly informed — but who can believe half that is 
said? After she had done speaking to me, she put her 
hand to her bosom and adjusted her tucker. Then she 



60 THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS. 

cast her eyes a little down, upon my beholding her too 
earnestly. They say she sings excellently; her voice in 
her ordinary speech has something in it inexpressibly 
sweet. You must know I dined with her at a public table 
the day after I first saw her, and she helped me to some 
tansy in the eye of all the gentlemen in the country : she 
has certainly the finest hand of any woman in the world. 
I can assure you, sir, were you to behold her, you would 
be in the same condition ; for, as her speech is music, her 
form is angelic. But I find I grow irregular while I am 
talking of her; but indeed it would be stupidity to be 
unconcerned at such perfection. Oh, the excellent crea- 
ture ! she is as inimitable to all women as she is inacces- 
sible to all men." 

5 I found my friend begin to rave, and insensibly led 
him towards the house, that we might be joined by some 
other company ; and am convinced that the widow is the 
secret cause of all that inconsistency which appears in 
some parts of my friend's discourse. Though he has so 
much command of himself as not directly to mention her, 
yet, according to that of Martial, which one knows not 
how to render in English, " Dum tacet hanc loquitur." I 
shall end this paper with that whole epigram, which 
represents with much humor my honest friend's con- 
dition. 

" Quicquid agit Rufus, nihil est nisi Naevia Rufo ; 
Si gaudet, si flet, si tacet, hanc loquitur : 
Cenat, propinat, poscit, negat, annuit, — una est 
Naevia ; si non sit Naevia, mutus erit. 
Scriberet hesterna patri cum luce salutem, 
Naevia lux, inquit, ' Naevia lumen, ave.' 



SIR ROGER'S ECONOMY. 61 

' Let Rufus weep, rejoice, stand, sit, or walk, 
Still he can nothing but of Naevia talk ; 
Let him eat, drink, ask questions, or dispute, 
Still he must speak of Naevia or be mute ; 
He writ to his father, ending with this line, — 
' I am, my lovely Naevia, ever thine.' " 



R. 



XIII. SIR ROGER'S ECONOMY. 



No. 114.] Wednesday, July 11, 171 1. [Steele. 

Paupertatis pudor et fuga. 

Hor. 

1 Economy in our affairs has the same effect upon our 
fortunes which good breeding has upon our conversations. 
There is a pretending behavior in both cases, which, 
instead of making men esteemed, renders them both 
miserable and contemptible. We had yesterday at Sir 
Roger's, a set of country gentlemen who dined with him ; 
and after dinner, the glass was taken by those who pleased 
pretty plentifully. Among others, I observed a person of 
a tolerable good aspect, who seemed to be more greedy 
of liquor than any of the company; and yet, methought, 
he did not taste it with delight. As he grew warm, he 
was suspicious of everything that was said ; and as he 
advanced towards being fuddled, his humor grew worse. 
At the same time, his bitterness seemed to be rather an 
inward dissatisfaction in his own mind than any dislike 
he had taken at the company. Upon hearing his name, 
I knew him to be a gentleman of a considerable fortune in 
this country, but greatly in debt. What gives the un- 
happy man this peevishness of spirit is, that his estate is 
dipped, and is eating out with usury ; and yet he has not 



6z THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS. 

the heart to sell any part of it. His proud stomach, at the 
cost of restless nights, constant inquietudes, danger of 
affronts, and a thousand nameless inconveniences, pre- 
serves this canker in his fortune, rather than it shall be 
said he is a man of fewer hundreds a year than he has 
been commonly reputed. Thus he endures the torment of 
poverty, to avoid the name of being less rich. If you go 
to his house you see great plenty, but served in a manner 
that shows it is all unnatural, and that the master's mind 
is not at home. There is a certain waste and carelessness 
in the air of everything, and the whole appears but a 
covered indigence, a magnificent poverty. That neatness 
and cheerfulness which attends the table of him who lives 
within compass is wanting, and exchanged for a libertine 
way of service in all about him. 

2 This gentleman's conduct, though a very common way 
of management, is as ridiculous as that officer's would be 
who had but few men under his command, and should 
take the charge of an extent of country rather than of 
a small pass. To pay for, personate, and keep in a man's 
hands a greater estate than he really has, is of all others 
the most unpardonable vanity, and must in the end reduce 
the man who is guilty of it to dishonor. Yet, if we look 
round us in any county of Great Britain, we shall see 
many in this fatal error, — if that may be called by so soft 
a name which proceeds from a false shame of appearing 
what they really are, — when the contrary behavior would 
in a short time advance them to the condition which they 
pretend to. 

3 Laertes has fifteen hundred pounds a year, which is 
mortgaged for six thousand pounds ; but it is impossible 
to convince him that if he sold as much as would pay off 



SIR ROGER'S ECONOMY. 63 

that debt he would save four shillings in the pound, which 
he gives for the vanity of being the reputed master of it. 
Yet, if Laertes did this, he would perhaps be easier in 
his own fortune; but then Irus, a fellow of yesterday, 
who has but twelve hundred a year, would be his equal. 
Rather than this shall be, Laertes goes on to bring well- 
born beggars into the world, and every twelvemonth 
charges his estate with at least one year's rent more by 
the birth of a child. 

4 Laertes and Irus are neighbors, whose way of living 
are an abomination to each other. Irus is moved by the 
fear of poverty, and Laertes by the shame of it. Though 
the motive of action is of so near affinity in both, and may 
be resolved into this, " That to each of them poverty is 
the greatest of all evils," yet are their manners very 
widely different. Shame of poverty makes Laertes launch 
into unnecessary equipage, vain expense, and lavish en- 
tertainments ; fear of poverty makes Irus allow himself 
only plain necessaries, appear without a servant, sell his 
own corn, attend his laborers, and be himself a laborer. 
Shame of poverty makes Laertes go every day a step 
nearer to it, and fear of poverty stirs up Irus to make 
every day some further progress from it. 

5 These different motives produce the excesses which 
men are guilty of in the negligence of and provision for 
themselves. Usury, stock- jobbing, extortion, and oppres- 
sion have their seed in the dread of want; and vanity, 
riot, and prodigality, from the shame of it : but both these 
excesses are infinitely below the pursuit of a reasonable 
creature. After we have taken care to command so much 
as is necessary for maintaining ourselves in the order of 
men suitable to our character, the care of superfluities is 



64 THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS 

a vice no less extravagant than the neglect of necessaries 
would have been before. 

6 Certain it is that they are both out of nature when she 
is followed with reason and good sense. It is from this 
reflection that I always read Mr. Cowley with the greatest 
pleasure. His magnanimity is as much above that of 
other considerable men, as his understanding; and it is a 
true distinguishing spirit in the elegant author who pub- 
lished his works, to dwell so much upon the temper of his 
mind and the moderation of his desires. By this means 
he has rendered his friend as amiable as famous. That 
state of life which bears the face of poverty with Mr. 
Cowley's " great vulgar," is admirably described ; and it 
is no small satisfaction to those of the same turn of desire, 
that he produces the authority of the wisest men of the 
best age of the world, to strengthen his opinion of the 
ordinary pursuits of mankind. 

7 It would, methinks, be no ill maxim of life, if, accord- 
ing to that ancestor of Sir Roger whom I lately men- 
tioned, every man would point to himself what sum he 
would resolve not to exceed. He might by this means 
cheat himself into a tranquillity on this side of that expec- 
tation, or convert what he should get above it to nobler 
uses than his own pleasures or necessities. 

8 This temper of mind would exempt a man from an 
ignorant envy of restless men above him, and a more 
inexcusable contempt of happy men below him. This 
would be sailing by some compass, living with some 
design; but to be eterially bewildered in prospects of 
future gain, and putting on unnecessary armor against 
improbable blows of fortune, is a mechanic being, which 
has not good sense for its direction, but is carried on, by 



LABOR AND EXERCISE. 65 

a sort of acquired instinct towards things below our con- 
sideration and unworthy our esteem. 
9 It is possible that the tranquillity I now enjoy at Sir 
Roger's may have created in me this way of thinking, 
which is so abstracted from the common relish of the 
world; but, as I am now in a pleasing arbor, surrounded 
with a beautiful landscape, I find no inclination so strong 
as to continue in these mansions, so remote from the 
ostentatious scenes of life; and am, at this present writ- 
ing, philosopher enough to conclude, with Mr. Cowley, — 

" If e'er ambition did my fancy cheat, 
With any wish so mean as to be great, 
Continue, Heaven, still from me to remove 
The humble blessings of that life I love ! " T. 

XIV. LABOR AND EXERCISE. 
No. 115.] Thursday, July 12, 171 1. [Addison. 

Ut sit mens sana in corpore sano. 

Juv. 

1 Bodily labor is of two kinds : either that which a man 
submits to for his livelihood, or that which he undergoes 
for his pleasure. The latter of them generally changes 
the name of labor for that of exercise, but differs only 
from ordinary labor as it rises from another motive. 

2 A country life abounds in both these kinds of labor, 
and for that reason gives a man a greater stock of health, 
and consequently a more perfect enjoyment of himself, 
than any other way of life. I consider the body as a sys- 
tem of tubes and glands, or, to use a more rustic phrase, 
a bundle of pipes and strainers, fitted to one another after 
so wonderful a manner as to make a proper engine for 



66 THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS. 

the soul to work with. This description does not only 
comprehend the bowels, bones, tendons, veins, nerves, 
and arteries, but every muscle and every ligature, which 
is a composition of fibres that are so many imperceptible 
tubes or pipes, interwoven on all sides with invisible 
glands or strainers. 

3 This general idea of a human body, without consider- 
ing it in its niceties of anatomy, lets us see how absolutely 
necessary labor is for the right preservation of it. There 
must be frequent motions and agitations, to mix, digest, 
and separate the juices contained in it, as well as to clear 
and cleanse that infinitude of pipes and strainers of which 
it is composed, and to give their solid parts a more firm 
and lasting tone. Labor or exercise ferments the humors, 
casts them into their proper channels, throws off redun- 
dancies, and helps nature in those secret distributions 
without which the body cannot subsist in its vigor, nor 
the soul act with cheerfulness. 

4 I might here mention the effects which this has upon 
all the faculties of the mind, by keeping the understand- 
ing clear, the imagination untroubled, and refining those 
spirits that are necessary for the proper exertion of our 
intellectual faculties during the present laws of union 
between soul and body. It is to a neglect in this particu- 
lar that we must ascribe the spleen which is so frequent 
in men of studious and sedentary tempers, as well as the 
vapors to which those of the other sex are so often sub- 
ject. 

5 Had not exercise been absolutely necessary for our 
well-being, nature would not have made the body so 
proper for it, by giving such an activity to the limbs and 
such a pliancy to every part as necessarily produce those 



LABOR AND EXERCISE. 67 

compressions, extensions, contortions, dilatations, and all 
other kinds of motions that are necessary for the preser- 
vation of such a system of tubes and glands as has been 
before mentioned. And that we might not want induce- 
ments to engage us in such an exercise of the body as is 
proper for its welfare, it is so ordered that nothing valu- 
able can be procured without it. Not to mention riches 
and honor, even food and raiment are not to be come at 
without the toil of the hands and sweat of the brows. 
Providence furnishes materials, but expects that we 
should work them up ourselves. The earth must be 
labored before it gives its increase ; and when it is forced 
into its several products, how many hands must they pass 
through before they are fit for use ! Manufactures, trade, 
and agriculture naturally employ more than nineteen 
parts of the species in twenty; and as for those who are 
not obliged to labor, by the condition in which they are 
born, they are more miserable than the rest of mankind 
unless they indulge themselves in that voluntary labor 
which goes by the name of exercise. 
6 My friend Sir Roger has been an indefatigable man in 
business of this kind, and has hung several parts of his 
house with the trophies of his former labors. The walls 
of his great hall are covered with the horns of several 
kinds of deer that he has killed in the chase, which he 
thinks the most valuable furniture of his house, as they 
afford him frequent topics of discourse, and show that he 
has not been idle. At the lower end of the hall is a large 
otter's skin stuffed with hay, which his mother ordered to 
be hung up in that manner, and the knight looks upon it 
with great satisfaction, because it seems he was but nine 
years old when his dog killed him. A little room adjoin- 



68 THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS. 

ing to the hall is a kind of arsenal filled with guns of 
several sizes and inventions, with which the knight has 
made great havoc in the woods, and destroyed many 
thousands of pheasants, partridges, and woodcocks. His 
stable doors are patched with noses that belonged to 
foxes of the knight's own hunting down. Sir Roger 
showed me one of them, that for distinction sake has a 
brass nail struck through it, which cost him about fifteen 
hours' riding, carried him through half a dozen counties, 
killed him a brace of geldings, and lost above half his 
dogs. This the knight looks upon as one of the greatest 
exploits of his life. The perverse widow, v/hom I have 
given some account of, was the death of several foxes ; for 
Sir Roger has told me that in the course of his amours 
he patched the western door of his stable. Whenever 
the widow was cruel, the foxes were sure to pay for it. 
In proportion as his passion for the widow abated and 
old age came on, he left off fox-hunting; but a hare is 
not yet safe that sits within ten miles of his house. 

7 There is no kind of exercise which I would so recom- 
mend to my readers of both sexes as this of riding, as 
there is none which so much conduces to health, and is 
every way accommodated to the body, according to the 
idea which I have given of it. Dr. Sydenham is very 
lavish in its praises; and if the English reader will see 
the mechanical effects of it described at length, he may 
find them in a book published not many years since, under 
the title of the " Medicina Gymnastica." 

8 For my own part, when I am in town, for want of these 
opportunities I exercise myself an hour every morning 
upon a dumb-bell that is placed in a corner of my room, 
and pleases me the more because it does everything I 



SIR ROGER AS A HUNTER. 6 9 

require of it in the most profound silence. My landlady 
and her daughters are so well acquainted with my hours 
of exercise, that they never come into my room to disturb 
me whilst I am ringing. 

9 When I was some years younger than I am at present, 
I used to employ myself in a more laborious diversion, 
which I learned from a Latin treatise of exercises that 
is written with great erudition. It is there called the 
o-KiofMxxLa, or the fighting with a man's own shadow, and 
consists in the brandishing of two short sticks grasped in 
each hand, and loaden with plugs of lead at either end. 
This opens the chest, exercises the limbs, and gives a man 
all the pleasure of boxing, without the blows. r I could 
wish that several learned men would lay out that time 
which they employ in controversies and disputes about 
nothing, in this method of fighting with their own shad- 
ows. It might conduce very much to evaporate the 
spleen, which makes them uneasy to the public as well as 
to themselves. 

10 To conclude, as I am a compound of soul and body, I 
consider myself as obliged to a double scheme of duties, 
and I think I have not fulfilled the business of the day 
when I do not thus employ the one in labor and exercise, 
as well as the other in study and contemplation. L. 

XV. SIR ROGER AS A HUNTER. 
No. 116.] Friday, July 13, 1711. [Budgell. 

Vocat ingenti clamore Cithaeron, 

Taygetique canes. 

Virg. 

1 Those who have searched into human nature observe 
that nothing so much shows the nobleness of the soul as 



7o fHE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS. 

that its felicity consists in action. Every man has such 
an active principle in him that he will find out something 
to employ himself upon, in wha tever place or state of life 
he is posted. I have heard of a gentleman who was under 
close confinement in the Bastille seven years; during 
which time he amused himself in scattering a few small 
pins about his chamber, gathering them up again, and 
placing them in different figures on the arm of a great 
chair. He often told his friend afterwards, that unless 
he had found out this piece of exercise, he verily believed 
he should have lost his senses. 

2 After what has been said, I need not inform my readers 
that Sir Roger, with whose character I hope they are 
at present pretty well acquainted, has in his youth gone 
through the whole course of those rural diversions which 
the country abounds in, and which seem to be extremely 
well suited to that laborious industry a man may observe 
here in a far greater degree than in towns and cities. I 
have before hinted at some of my friend's exploits: he 
has in his youthful days taken forty coveys of partridges 
in a season, and tired many a salmon with a line consisting 
but of a single hair. The constant thanks and good wishes 
of the neighborhood always attended him on account of 
his remarkable enmity towards foxes, having destroyed 
more of those vermin in one year than it was thought the 
whole country could have produced. Indeed, the knight 
does not scruple to own, among his most intimate friends, 
that in order to establish his reputation this way, he has 
secretly sent for great numbers of them out of other 
counties, which he used to turn loose about the country 
by night, that he might the better signalize himself in their 
destruction the next day. His hunting horses were the 



SIR ROGER AS A HUNTER. 71 

finest and best managed in all these^ parts : his tenants 
are still full of the praises of a gray stone-horse that 
unhappily staked himself several years since, and was 
buried with great solemnity in the orchard. 

3 Sir Roger, being at present too old for fox-hunting, to 
keep himself in action, has disposed of his beagles and 
got a pack of stop-hounds. What these want in speed 
he endeavors to make amends for by the deepness of their 
mouths and the variety of their notes, which are suited in 
such manner to each other that the whole cry makes up 
a complete concert. He is so nice in this particular that 
a gentleman having made him a present of a very fine 
hound the other day, the knight returned it by the servant 
with a great many expressions of civility, but desired him 
to tell his master that the dog he had sent was indeed 
a most excellent bass, but that at present he only wanted 
a counter tenor. Could I believe my friend had ever read 
Shakespeare, I should certainly conclude he had taken 
the hint from Theseus, in the " Midsummer Night's 
Dream " : — 

" My hounds are bred out of the Spartan kind, 
So flew'd, so sanded, and their heads are hung 
With ears that sweep away the morning dew : 
Crook-knee'd and dew-lapp'd like Thessalian bulls ; 
Slow in pursuit, but match'd in mouths, like bells, 
Each under each. A cry more tuneable 
Was never holla'd to, nor cheer'd with horn." 

4 Sir Roger is so keen at this sport that he has been out 
almost every day since I came down ; and upon the chap- 
lain's offering to lend me his easy pad, I was prevailed 
on yesterday morning to make one of the company. I was 
extremely pleased, as we rid along, to observe the general 
benevolence of all the neighborhood towards my friend, 



72 THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS. 

The farmers' sons thought themselves happy if they could 
open a gate for the good old knight as he passed by; 
which he generally requited with a nod or a smile, and 
a kind inquiry after their fathers and uncles. 

5 After we had rid about a mile from home, we came 
upon a large heath, and the sportsmen began to beat. 
They had done so for some time, when, as I was at a little 
distance from the rest of the company, I saw a hare pop 
out from a small furze-brake almost under my horse's feet. 
I marked the way she took, which I endeavored to make 
the company sensible of by extending my arm ; but to 
no purpose, till Sir Roger, who knows that none x>f my 
extraordinary motions are insignificant, rode up to me, 
and asked me if puss was gone that way. Upon my 
answering, " Yes,'' he immediately called in the dogs and 
put them upon the scent. As they were going off, I heard 
one of the country fellows muttering to his companions 
that 'twas a wonder they had not lost all their sport, for 
want of the silent gentleman's " Stole away ! " 

6 This, with my aversion to leaping hedges, made me 
withdraw to a rising ground, from whence I could have 
the picture of the whole chase, without the fatigue of 
keeping in with the hounds. The hare immediately threw 
them above a mile behind her ; but I was pleased to find 
that instead of running straight forwards, or in hunter's 
language, " flying the country," as I was afraid she might 
have done, she wheeled about, and described a sort of 
circle round the hill where I had taken my station, in 
such manner as gave me a very distinct view of the sport. 
I could see her first pass by, and the dogs some time 
afterwards unravelling the whole track she had made, and 
following her through all her doubles. I was at the same 



SIR ROGER AS A HUNTER. 73 

time delighted in observing that deference which the rest 
of the pack paid to each particular hound, according to 
the character he had acquired amongst them : if they were 
at fault, and an old hound of reputation opened but once, 
he was immediately followed by the whole cry ; while a 
raw dog, or one who was a noted liar, might have yelped 
his heart out without being taken notice of. 
7 The hare now, after having squatted two or three times, 
and been put up again as often, came still nearer to the 
place where she was at first started. The dogs pursued 
her, and these were followed by the jolly knight, who 
rode upon a white gelding, encompassed by his tenants 
and servants, and cheering his hounds with all the gaiety 
of five-and-twenty. One of the sportsmen rode up to me, 
and told me that he was sure the chase was almost at an 
end, because the old dogs, which had hitherto lain behind, 
now headed the pack. The fellow was in the right. Our 
hare took a large field just under us, followed by the full 
cry " in view." I must confess the brightness of the 
weather, the cheerfulness of everything around me, the 
chiding of the hounds, which was returned upon us in a 
double echo from two neighboring hills, with the hollow- 
ing of the sportsmen, and the sounding of the horn, lifted 
my spirits into a most lively pleasure, which I freely in- 
dulged because I was sure it was innocent. If I was 
under any concern, it was on the account of the poor hare, 
that was now quite spent, and almost within the reach of 
her enemies ; when the huntsman, getting forward, threw 
down his pole before the dogs. They were now within 
eight yards of that game which they had been pursuing 
for almost as many hours ; yet on the signal before men- 
tioned, thev all. made a sudden stand, and though they 



74 THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS. 

continued opening as much as before, durst not once 
attempt to pass beyond the pole. At the same time Sir 
Roger rode forward, and, alighting, took up the hare in 
his arms, which he soon delivered up to one of his servants 
with an order, if she could be kept alive, to let her go in 
his great orchard, where it seems he has several of these 
prisoners of war, who live together in a very comfortable 
captivity. I was highly pleased to see the discipline of 
the pack, and the good-nature of the knight, who could 
not find in his heart to murder a creature that had given 
him so much diversion. 

8 As we were returning home I remembered that Monsieur 
Pascal, in his most excellent discourse on the " Misery of 
Man," tells us that all our endeavors after greatness pro- 
ceed from nothing but a desire of being surrounded by a 
multitude of persons and affairs that may hinder us from 
looking into ourselves, which is a view we cannot bear. 
He afterwards goes on to show that our love of sports 
comes from the same reason, and is particularly severe 
upon hunting. " What," says he, " unless it be to drown 
thought, can make men throw away so much time and 
pains upon a silly animal, which they might buy cheaper 
in the market ? " The foregoing reflection is certainly 
just when a man suffers his whole mind to be drawn into 
his sports, and altogether loses himself in the woods ; but 
does not affect those who propose a far more laudable end 
from this exercise, — I mean, the preservation of health, 
and keeping all the organs of the soul in a condition to ex- 
ecute her orders. Had that incomparable person, whom I 
last quoted, been a little more indulgent to himself in this 
point, the world might probably have enjoyed him much 
longer; whereas through too great an application to his 



THE COVERLEY WITCH. 75 

studies in his youth, he contracted that ill habit of body 
which, after a tedious sickness, carried him off in the 
fortieth year of his age; and the whole history we have 
of his life till that time, is but one continued account of 
the behavior of a noble soul struggling under innumer- 
able pains and distempers. 

9 For my own part, I intend to hunt twice a week during 
my stay with Sir Roger ; and shall prescribe the moderate 
use of this exercise to all my country friends, as the best 
kind of physic for mending a bad constitution and pre- 
serving a good one. 

10 I cannot do this better than in the following lines out 
of Mr. Dryden : — 

" The first physicians by debauch were made ; 
Excess began, and sloth sustains the trade. 
By chase our long-lived fathers earned their food ; 
Toil strung the nerves, and purified the blood ; 
But we their sons, a pamper'd race of men, 
Are dwindled down to threescore years and ten. 
Better to hunt in fields for health unbought 
Than fee the doctor for a nauseous draught. 
The wise for cure on exercise depend : 
God never made his work for man to mend." 



X. 



XVI. THE COVERLEY WITCH. 



No. 117.] Saturday, July 14, 171 1. [Addison. 

Ipsi sibi somnia fingunt. 



Virg. 



1 There are some opinions in which a man should stand 
neuter, without engaging his assent to one side or the 
other. Such a hovering faith as this, which refuses to 
settle upon any determination, is absolutely necessary to 



76 THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS. 

a mind that is careful to avoid errors and prepossessions. 
When the arguments press equally on both sides, in mat- 
ters that are indifferent to us, the safest method is to 
give up ourselves to neither. 

2 It is with this temper of mind that I consider the sub- 
ject of witchcraft. When I hear the relations that are 
made from all parts of the world, — not only from Norway 
and Lapland, from the East and West Indies, but from 
every particular nation in Europe, — I cannot forbear 
thinking that there is such an intercourse and commerce 
with evil spirits as that which we express by the name of 
witchcraft. But when I consider that the ignorant and 
credulous parts of the world abound most in these rela- 
tions, and that the persons among us who are supposed to 
engage in such an infernal commerce are people of a weak 
understanding and a crazed imagination, and at the same 
time reflect upon the many impostures and delusions of 
this nature that have been detected in all ages, I endeavor 
to suspend my belief till I hear more certain accounts 
than any which have yet come to my knowledge. In 
short, when I consider the ■ question whether there are 
such persons in the world as those we call witches, my 
mind is divided between the two opposite opinions; or 
rather, to speak my thoughts freely, I believe in general 
that there is, and has been, such a thing as witchcraft; 
but at the same time can give no credit to any particular 
instance of it. 

3 I am engaged in this speculation by some occurrences 
that I met with yesterday, which I shall give my reader 
an account of at large. As I was walking with my friend 
Sir Roger by the side of one of his woods, an old woman 
applied herself to me for my charity. Her dress and fig- 



THE COVERLEY WITCH. 77 

lire put me in mind of the following description in 
Otway : — 

" In a close lane as I pursued my journey, 
I spied a wrinkled hag, with age grown double, 
Picking dry sticks, and mumbling to herself. 
Her eyes with scalding rheum were gall'd and red; 
Cold palsy shook her head; her hands seem'd wither'd ; 
And on her crooked shoulders had she wrapp'd 
The tatter'd remnants of an old striped hanging, 
Which served to keep her carcase from the cold : 
So there was nothing of a piece about her. 
Her lower weeds were all o'er coarsely patch'd 
With diff'rent color'd rags — black, red, white, yellow — 
And seem'd to speak variety of wretchedness." 

4 As I was musing on this description and comparing it 
with the object before me, the knight told me that this 
very old woman had the reputation of a witch all over 
the country, that her lips were observed to be always in 
motion, and that there was not a switch about her house 
which her neighbors did not believe had carried her sev- 
eral hundreds of miles. If she chanced to stumble, they 
always found sticks or straws that lay in the figure of a 
cross before her. If she made any mistake at church, and 
cried " Amen " in a wrong place, they never failed to con- 
clude that she was saying her prayer backwards. There 
was not a maid in the parish that would take a pin of her, 
though she would offer a bag of money with it. She goes 
by the name of Moll White, and has made the country 
ring with several imaginary exploits which are palmed 
upon her. If the dairy maid does not make her butter 
come so soon as she should have it, Moll White is at the 
bottom of the churn. If a horse sweats in the stable, 
Moll White has been upon his back. If a hare makes an 



78 THE SIR ROGER- DE COVERLEY PAPERS. 

unexpected escape from the hounds, the huntsman curses 
Moll White. " Nay," says Sir Roger, " I have known the 
master of the pack, upon such an occasion, send one of his 
servants to see if Moll White had been out that morning." 

5 This account raised my curiosity so far that I begged 
my friend Sir Roger to go with me into her hovel, which 
stood in a solitary corner under the side of the wood. 
Upon our first entering, Sir Roger winked to me, and 
pointed at something that stood behind the door, which, 
upon looking that way, I found to be an old broomstaff. 
At the same time, he whispered me in the ear to take 
notice of a tabby cat that sat in the chimney-corner, 
which, as the old knight told me, lay under as bad a 
report as Moll White herself ; for besides that Moll is said 
often to accompany her in the same shape, the cat is 
reported to have spoken twice or thrice in her life, and to 
have played several pranks above the capacity of an ordi- 
nary cat. 

6 I was secretly concerned to see human nature in so 
much wretchedness and disgrace, but at the same time 
could not forbear smiling to hear Sir Roger, who is a 
little puzzled about the old woman, advising her, as a 
justice of peace, to avoid all communication with the 
devil, and never to hurt any of her neighbors' cattle. We 
concluded our visit with a bounty, which was very 
acceptable. 

7 In our return home, Sir Roger told me that old Moll 
had been often brought before him for making children 
spit pins, and giving maids the nightmare; and that the 
country people would be tossing her into a pond and 
trying experiments with her every day, if it was not for 
him and his chaplain. 



A COVERLEY PASTORAL. 79 

8 I have since found upon inquiry, that Sir Roger was 
several times staggered with the reports that had been 
brought him concerning this old woman, and would fre- 
quently have bound her over to the county sessions had 
not his chaplain with much ado persuaded him to the 
contrary. 

9 I have been the more particular in this account because 
I hear there is scarce a village in England that has not 
a Moll White in it. When an old woman begins to dote, 
and grow chargeable to a parish, she is generally turned 
into a witch, and fills the whole country with extravagant 
fancies,, imaginary distempers, and terrifying dreams. In 
the mean time the poor wretch that is the innocent occa- 
sion of so many evils begins to be frighted at herself, and 
sometimes confesses secret commerce and familiarities 
that her imagination forms in a delirious old age. This 
frequently cuts off charity from the greatest objects of 
compassion, and inspires people with a malevolence 
towards those poor, decrepit parts of our species in 
whom human nature is defaced by infirmity and dotage. 

L. 

XVII. A COVERLEY PASTORAL. 
No. 118.] Monday, July 16, 171 1. [Steele. 

Haeret lateri lethalis arundo. 
Virg. 

1 This agreeable seat is surrounded with so many pleas- 
ing walks, which are struck out of a wood, in the midst 
of which the house, stands, that one can hardly ever be 
weary of rambling from one labyrinth of delight to an- 



80 THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS. 

other. To one vised to live in a city, the charms of the 
country are so exquisite that the mind is lost in a certain 
transport which raises us above ordinary life, and is yet 
not strong enough to be inconsistent with tranquillity. 
This state of mind was I in, ravished with the murmur of 
waters, the whisper of breezes, the singing of birds ; and 
whether I looked up to the heavens, down on the earth, or 
turned to the prospects around me, still struck with new 
sense of pleasure; when I found, by the voice of my 
friend, who walked by me, that we had insensibly strolled 
into the grove sacred to the widow. 

2 " This woman," says he, " is of all others the most 
unintelligible : she either designs to marry, or she does 
not. What is the most perplexing of all is that she doth 
not either say to her lovers she has any resolution against 
that condition of life in general, or that she banishes 
them ; but, conscious of her own merit, she permits their 
addresses without fear of any ill consequence or want 
of respect from their rage or despair. A man whose 
thoughts are constantly bent upon so agreeable an object, 
must be excused if the ordinary occurrences in conversa- 
tion are below his attention. I call her indeed perverse ; 
but, alas! why do I call her so? Because her superior 
merit is such that I cannot approach her without awe, that 
my heart is checked by too much esteem ; I am angry that 
her charms are not more accessible, that I am more in- 
clined to worship than salute her. How often have I 
wished her unhappy that I might have an opportunity of 
serving her ; and how often troubled in that very imagi- 
nation, at giving her the pain of being obliged ! Well, I 
have led a miserable life in secret upon her account ; but 
fancy she would have condescended to have some regard 



A COVERLEY PASTORAL. . 81 

for me if it had not been for that watchful animal, her 
confidante. 

3 " Of all persons under the sun/' continued he, calling 
me by my name, " be sure to set a mark upon confidantes ; 
they are of all people the most impertinent. What is 
most pleasant to observe in them is that they assume to 
themselves the merit of the persons whom they have in 
their custody. Orestilla is a great fortune, and in won- 
derful danger of surprises ; therefore full of suspicions of 
the least indifferent thing, particularly careful of new 
acquaintance, and of growing too familiar with the old. 
Themista, her favorite woman, is every whit as careful of 
whom she speaks to, and what she says. Let the ward be 
a beauty, her confidante shall treat you with an air of dis- 
tance; let her be a fortune, and she assumes the sus- 
picious behavior of her friend and patroness. Thus it is 
that very many of our unmarried women of distinction 
are to all intents and purposes married, except the con- 
sideration of different sexes. They are directly under the 
conduct of their whisperer, and think they are in a state 
of freedom while they can prate with one of these attend- 
ants of all men in general, and still avoid the man they 
most like. You do not see one heiress in a hundred whose 
fate does not turn upon this circumstance of choosing a 
confidante. Thus it is that the lady is addressed to, pre- 
sented, and flattered, only by proxy, in her woman. In 

my case, how is it possible that " 

4 Sir Roger was proceeding in his harangue, when we 
heard the voice of one speaking very importunately, and 
repeating these words: "What, not one smile?" We 
followed the sound till we came to a close thicket, on the 
other side of which we saw a young woman sitting as it 
6 



82 THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS 

were in a personated sullenness just over a transparent 
fountain. Opposite to her stood Mr. William, Sir 
Roger's master of the game. The knight whispered me, 
" Hist, these are lovers ! " The huntsman, looking ear- 
nestly at the shadow of the young maiden in the stream : 
" O thou dear picture ! if thou couldst remain there in 
the absence of that fair creature whom you represent in 
the water, how willingly could I stand here satisfied for 
ever, without troubling my dear Betty herself with any 
mention of her unfortunate William, whom she is angry 
with; but alas! when she pleases to be gone, thou' wilt 
also vanish ; — yet let me talk to thee while thou dost stay. 
Tell my dearest Betty thou dost not more depend upon 
her than does her William ; her absence will make away 
with me as well as thee. If she offers to remove thee, I'll 
jump into these waves to lay hold on thee; herself, her 
own dear person, I must never embrace again. Still do 
you hear me without one smile ? — it is too much to bear." 
He had no sooner spoke these words, but he made an 
offer of throwing himself into the water; at which his 
mistress started up, and at the next instant he jumped 
across the fountain and met her in an embrace. She, half 
recovering from her fright, said in the most charming 
voice imaginable, and with a tone of complaint, " I 
thought how well you would drown yourself. No, no, 
you won't drown yourself till you have taken your leave 
of Susan Holliday." The huntsman, with a tenderness 
that spoke the most passionate love, and with his cheek 
close to hers, whispered the softest vows of fidelity in her 
ear, and cried, "Don't, my dear, believe a word Kate 
Willow says ; she is spiteful and makes stories, because 
she loves to hear me talk to herself for your sake." 



A COVERLEY PASTORAL. 83 

5 " Look you there," quoth Sir Roger," do you see there, 
all mischief comes from confidantes ! But let us not in- 
terrupt them ; the maid is honest, and the man dares not 
be otherwise, for he knows I loved her father; I will 
interpose in this matter, and hasten the wedding. Kate 
Willow is a witty, mischievous wench in the neighborhood, 
who was a beauty; and makes me hope I shall see the 
perverse widow in her condition. She was so flippant 
with her answers to all the honest fellows that came near 
her, and so very vain of her beauty, that she has valued 
herself upon her charms till they are ceased. She there- 
fore now makes it her business to prevent other young 
women from being more discreet than she was herself; 
however, the saucy thing said the other day well enough, 
' Sir Roger and I must make a match, for we are both 
despised by those we loved.' The hussy has a great deal 
of power wherever she comes, and has her share of 
cunning. 

6 " However, when I reflect upon this woman, I do not 
know whether, in the main, I am the worse for having 
loved her; whenever she is recalled to my imagination, 
my youth returns, and I feel a forgotten warmth in my 
veins. This affliction in my life has streaked all my con- 
duct with a softness of which I should otherwise have 
been incapable. It is, perhaps, to this dear image in my 
heart owing, that I am apt to relent, that I easily forgive, 
and that many desirable things are grown into my temper 
which I should not have arrived at by better motives than 
the thought of being one day hers. I am pretty well 
satisfied such a passion as I have had is never well cured ; 
and between you and me, I am often apt to imagine it 
has had some whimsical effect upon my brain. For I 



84 THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS. 

frequently find that in my most serious discourse I let 
fall some comical familiarity of speech or odd phrase that 
makes the company laugh; however, I cannot but allow 
she is a most excellent woman. When she is in the coun- 
try, I warrant she does not run into dairies, but reads 
upon the nature of plants; but has a glass hive, and 
comes into the garden out of books to see them work, 
and observes the policies of their commonwealth. She 
understands everything. I'd give ten pounds to hear her 
argue with my friend Sir Andrew Freeport about trade. 
No, no ; for all she looks so innocent, as it were, take my 
word for it, she is no fool." T. 

XVIII. SIR ROGER AT THE ASSIZES. 
No. 122.] Friday, July 20, 171 1. [Addison. 

Comes iucundus in via pro vehiculo est. 

Publ. Syr. 

1 A man's first care should be to avoid the reproaches of 
his own heart; his next, to escape the censures of the 
world. If the last interferes with the former, it ought to 
be entirely neglected; but otherwise there cannot be a 
greater satisfaction to an honest mind than to see those 
approbations which it gives itself seconded by the ap- 
plauses of the public. A man is more sure of his con- 
duct when the verdict which he passes upon his own 
behavior is thus warranted and confirmed by the opinion 
of all that know him. 

2 My worthy friend Sir Roger is one of those who is not 
only at peace within himself, but beloved and esteemed 
by all about him. He receives a suitable tribute for his 



SIR ROGER AT THE ASSIZES. 85 

universal benevolence to mankind in the returns of affec- 
tion and good will which are paid him by every one that 
lives within his neighborhood. I lately met with two or 
three odd instances of that general respect which is shown 
to the good old knight. He would needs carry Will 
Wimble and myself with him to the county assizes. As 
we were upon the road, Will Wimble joined a couple of 
plain men who rid before us, and conversed with 
them for some time ; during which my friend Sir Roger 
acquainted me with their characters. 

3 " The first of them," says he, " that has a spaniel by 
his side, is a yeoman of about an hundred pounds a year, 
an honest man. He is just within the Game Act and 
qualified to kill an hare or a pheasant. He knocks down 
a dinner with his gun twice or thrice a week ; and by that 
means lives much cheaper than those who have not so 
good an estate as himself. He would be a good neighbor 
if he did not destroy so many partridges; in short, he is 
a very sensible man, shoots flying, and has been several 
times foreman of the petty jury. 

4 " The other that rides along with him is Tom Touchy, 
a fellow famous for taking the law of everybody. There 
is not one in the town where he lives that he has not sued 
at a quarter sessions. The rogue had once the impudence 
to go to law with the widow. His head is full of costs, 
damages, and ejectments; he plagued a couple of honest 
gentlemen so long for a trespass in breaking one of his 
hedges, till he was forced to sell the ground it inclosed 
to defray the charges of the prosecution. His father left 
him fourscore pounds a year, but he has cast and been 
cast so often that he is not now worth thirty. I suppose 
he is going upon the old business of the willow tree." 



86 THE SIR ROGER DW COVERLEY PAPERS. 

5 As Sir Roger was giving me this account of Tom 
Touchy, Will Wimble and his two companions stopped 
short till we came up to them. After having paid their 
respects to Sir Roger, Will told him that Mr. Touchy and 
he must appeal to him upon a dispute that arose between 
them. Will, it seems, had been giving his fellow-traveller 
an account of his angling one day in such a hole ; when 
Tom Touchy, instead of hearing out his story, told him 
that Mr. Such-an-one, if he pleased, might take the law 
of him for fishing in that part of the river. My friend 
Sir Roger heard them both, upon a round trot ; and, after 
having paused some time, told them, with the air of a man 
who would not give his judgment rashly, that much 
might be said on both sides. They were neither of them 
dissatisfied with the knight's determination, because 
neither of them found himself in the wrong by it. Upon 
which we made the best of our way to the assizes. 

6 The court was sat before Sir Roger came ; but notwith- 
standing all the justices had taken their places upon the 
bench, they made room for the old knight at the head of 
them ; who, for his reputation in the country, took occa- 
sion to whisper in the judge's ear that he was glad his 
lordship had met with so much good weather in his cir- 
cuit. I was listening to the proceeding of the court with 
much attention, and infinitely pleased with that great 
appearance and solemnity which so properly accompanies 
such a public administration of our laws, when, after 
about an hour's sitting, I observed, to my great surprise, 
in the midst of a trial, that my friend Sir Roger was get- 
ting up to speak. I was in some pain for him, till I found 
he had acquitted himself of two or three sentences with a 
look of much business and great intrepidity. 



SIR ROGER AT THE ASSIZES. 87 

7 Upon his first rising, the court was hushed, and a gen- 
eral whisper ran among the country people that Sir Roger 
was up. The speech he made was so little to the purpose 
that I shall not trouble my readers with an account of it ; 
and I believe was not so much designed by the knight 
himself to inform the court, as to give him a figure in my 
eye, and keep up his credit in the country. 

8 I was highly delighted, when the court rose, to see the 
gentlemen of the country gathering about my old friend, 
and striving who should compliment him most; at the 
same time that the ordinary people gazed upon him at a 
distance, not a little admiring his courage, that was not 
afraid to speak to the judge. 

9 In our return home we met with a very odd accident, 
which I cannot forbear relating, because it shows how 
desirous all who know Sir Roger are of giving him marks 
of their esteem. When we arrived upon the verge of his 
estate, we stopped at a little inn to rest ourselves and our 
horses. The man of the house had, it seems, been for- 
merly a servant in the knight's family ; and, to do honor 
to his old master, had some time since, unknown to Sir 
Roger, put him up in a sign-post before the door ; so that 
the knight's head had hung out upon the road about a 
week before he himself knew anything of the matter. As 
soon as Sir Roger was acquainted with it, finding that 
his servant's indiscretion proceeded wholly from affection 
and good-will, he only told him that he had made him 
too high a compliment; and when the fellow seemed to 
think that could hardly be, added with a more decisive 
look, that it was too great an honor for any man under 
a duke; but told him at the same time that it might be 
altered with a very few touches, and that he himself 



88 THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS. 

would be at the charge of it. Accordingly they got a 
painter, by the knight's directions, to add a pair of whisk- 
ers to the face, and by a little aggravation to the features 
to change it into the Saracen's Head. I should not have 
known this story had not the innkeeper, upon Sir Roger's 
alighting, told him in my hearing that his honor's head 
was brought back last night with the alterations that he 
had ordered to be made in it. Upon this, my friend, 
with his usual cheerfulness, related the particulars above 
mentioned, and ordered the head to be brought into the 
room. I could not forbear discovering greater expres- 
sions of mirth than ordinary upon the appearance of this 
monstrous face, under which, notwithstanding it was 
made to frown and stare in a most extraordinary manner, 
I could still discover a distant resemblance of my old 
friend. Sir Roger, upon seeing me laugh, desired me to 
tell him truly if I thought it possible for people to know 
him in that disguise. I at first kept my usual silence ; but 
upon the knight's conjuring me to tell him whether it 
was not still more like himself than a Saracen, I com- 
posed my countenance in the best manner I could, and 
replied that much might be said on both sides. 
10 These several adventures, with the knight's behavior 
in them, gave me as pleasant a day as ever I met with in 
any of my travels. L. 



MISCHIEFS OF PARTY SPIRIT. 89 

XIX. MISCHIEFS OF PARTY SPIRIT. 
No. 125.] Tuesday, July 24, 1711. [Addison. 

Ne pueri, ne tanta animis assuescite bella : 
Neu patriae validas in viscera vertite vires. 

Virg. 

1 My worthy friend, Sir Roger, when we are talking of 
the malice of parties, very frequently tells us an accident 
that happened to him when he was a schoolboy, which 
was at a time when the feuds ran high between the 
Roundheads and Cavaliers. This worthy knight, being 
then but a stripling, had occasion to inquire which was 
the way to St. Anne's Lane ; upon which the person whom 
he spoke to, instead of answering his question, called 
him a young popish cur, and asked him who had made 
Anne a saint! The boy, being in some confusion, in- 
quired of the next he met, which was the way to Anne's 
Lane ; but was called a prick-eared cur for his pains, and 
instead of being shown the way, was told that she had 
been a saint before he was born, and would be one after 
he was hanged. " Upon this," says Sir Roger, " I did 
not think fit to repeat the former question, but going into 
every lane of the neighborhood, asked what they called 
the name of that lane." By which ingenious artifice, he 
found out the place he inquired after without giving 
offence to any party. Sir Roger generally closes this 
narrative with reflections on the mischief that parties do 
in the country; how they spoil good neighborhood, and 
make honest gentlemen hate one another; besides that 
they manifestly tend to the prejudice of the land-tax, and 
the destruction of the game. 



9 o THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS. 

Z There cannot a greater judgment befall a country than 
such a dreadful spirit of division as rends a government 
into two distinct people, and makes them greater stran- 
gers and more averse to one another than if they were 
actually two different nations. The effects of such a divi- 
sion are pernicious to the last degree, not only with regard 
to those advantages which they give the common enemy, 
but to those private evils which they produce in the heart 
of almost every particular person. This influence is very 
fatal both to men's morals and their understandings; it 
sinks the virtue of a nation, and not only so, but destroys 
even common sense. 

3 A furious party spirit, when it rages in its full violence, 
exerts itself in civil war and bloodshed; and when it is 
under its greatest restraints naturally breaks out in false- 
hood, detraction, calumny, and a partial administration of 
justice. In a word, it fills a nation with spleen and rancor, 
and extinguishes all the seeds of good-nature, compas- 
sion, and humanity. 

4 Plutarch says, very finely, that a man should not allow 
himself to hate even his enemies ; — " Because," says he, 
" if you indulge this passion in some occasions, it will rise 
of itself in others ; if you hate your enemies, you will con- 
tract such a vicious habit of mind as by degrees will break 
out upon those who are your friends, or those who are 
indifferent to you." I might here observe how admirably 
this precept of morality — which derives the malignity of 
hatred from the passion itself, and not from its object — 
answers to that great rule which was dictated to the 
world about an hundred years before this philosopher 
wrote ; but instead of that, I shall only take notice, with a 
real grief of heart, that the minds of many good men 



MISCHIEFS OF PARTY SPIRIT. gt 

among us appear- soured with party principles, and alien- 
ated from one another in such a manner as seems to me 
altogether inconsistent with the dictates either of reason 
or religion. Zeal for a public cause is apt to breed pas- 
sions in the hearts of virtuous persons to which the 
regard of their own private interest would never have 
betrayed them. 

5 If this party spirit has so ill an effect on our morals, it 
has likewise a very great one upon our judgments. We 
often hear a poor, insipid paper or pamphlet cried up, 
and sometimes a noble piece depreciated, by those who 
are of a different principle from the author. One who is 
actuated by this spirit is almost under an incapacity of 
discerning either real blemishes or beauties. A man 
of merit in a different principle, is like an object seen in 
two different mediums, that appears crooked or broken, 
however straight or entire it may be in itself. For this 
reason, there is scarce a person of any figure in England 
who does not go by two contrary characters, as opposite 
to one another as light and darkness. Knowledge and 
learning suffer in a particular manner from this .strange 
prejudice, which at present prevails amongst all ranks and 
degrees in the British nation. As men formerly became 
eminent in learned societies by their parts and acquisi- 
tions, they now distinguish themselves by the warmth and 
violence with which they espouse their respective parties. 
Books are valued upon the like consideration : an abusive, 
scurrilous style passes for satire, and a dull scheme of 
party notions is called fine writing. 

6 There is one piece of sophistry practiced by both sides ; 
and that is the taking any scandalous story that has been 
ever whispered or invented of a private man, for a known, 



92 THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS. 

undoubted truth, and raising suitable speculations upon it. 
Calumnies that have been never proved, or have been often 
refuted, are the ordinary postulatums of these infamous 
scribblers, upon which they proceed as upon first princi- 
ples granted by all men, though in their hearts they know 
they are false, or at best very doubtful. When they have 
laid these foundations of scurrility, it is no wonder that 
their superstructure is every way answerable to them. If 
this shameless practice of the present age endures much 
longer, praise and reproach will cease to be motives of 
action in good men. 

7 There are certain periods of time in all governments 
when this inhuman spirit prevails. Italy was long torn in 
pieces by the Guelphs and Ghibellines, and France by 
those who were for and against the League ; but it is very 
unhappy for a man to be born in such a stormy and tem- 
pestuous season. It is the restless ambition of artful men 
that thus breaks a people into factions, and draws several 
well-meaning persons to their interest by a specious con- 
cern for their country. How many honest minds are filled 
with uncharitable and barbarous notions, out of their zeal 
for the public good ! What cruelties and outrages would 
they not commit against men of an adverse party, whom 
they would honor and esteem, if, instead of considering 
them as they are represented, they knew them as they are ! 
Thus are persons of the greatest probity seduced into 
shameful errors and prejudices, and made bad men even 
by that noblest of principles, the " lOve of their country." 
I cannot here forbear mentioning the famous Spanish 
proverb, " If there were neither fools nor knaves in the 
world, all people would be of one mind." 
For my own part, I could heartily wish that all honest 



PARTY SPIRIT. 93 

men would enter into an association for the support of one 
another against the endeavors of those whom they ought 
to look upon as their common enemies, whatsoever side 
they may belong to. Were there such an honest body of 
neutral forces, we should never see the worst of men in 
great figures of life, because they are useful to a party; 
nor the best unregarded, because they are above prac- 
ticing those methods which would be grateful to their 
faction. We should then single every criminal out of 
the herd, and hunt him down, however formidable and 
overgrown he might appear : on the contrary, we should 
shelter distressed innocence, and defend virtue, however 
beset with contempt or ridicule, envy, or defamation. In 
short, we should not any longer regard our fellow subjects 
as Whigs or Tories, but should make the man of merit our 
friend, and the villain our enemy. C. 



XX. PARTY SPIRIT. — Continued. 
No 126.] Wednesday, July 25, 171 1. [Addison. 

Tros Rutulusve fuat, nullo discrimine habebo. 

Virg. 

1 In my yesterday's paper, I proposed that the honest 
men of all parties should enter into a kind of association 
for the defence of one another, and the confusion of their 
common enemies. As it is designed this neutral body 
should act with regard to nothing but truth and equity, 
and divest themselves of the little heats and prepossessions 
that cleave to parties of all kinds, I have prepared for them 



94 THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS. 

the following form of an association, which may express 
their intentions in the most plain and simple manner : — 

2 We whose names are hereunto subscribed, do solemnly 
declare that we do in our consciences believe two and two 
make four; and that we shall adjudge any man whatso- 
ever to be our enemy who endeavors to persuade us to the 
contrary. We are likewise ready to maintain, with 
the hazard of all that is near and dear to us, that six is 
less than seven in all times and all places, and that ten 
will not be more three years hence than it is at present. 
We do also firmly declare that it is our resolution as long 
as we live to call black black, and white white; and we 
shall upon all occasions oppose such persons that upon 
any day of the year shall call black white, or white black, 
with the utmost peril of our lives and fortunes. 

3 Were there such a combination of honest men, who 
without any regard to places would endeavor to extirpate 
all such furious zealots as would sacrifice one half of their 
country to the passion and interest of the other; as also 
such infamous hypocrites that are for promoting their own 
advantage under color of the public good ; witlj all the 
profligate, immoral retainers to each side, that have noth- 
ing to recommend them but an implicit submission to their 
leaders ; — we should soon see that furious party spirit 
extinguished, which may in time expose us to the derision 
and contempt of all the nations about us. 

4 A member of this society that would thus carefully 
employ himself in making room for merit, by throwing 
down the worthless and depraved part of mankind from 
those conspicuous stations of life to which they have been 
sometimes advanced, and all this without any regard to 
his private interest, would be no small benefactor to his 
country. 

5 I remember to have read in Diodorus Siculus an account 



PARTY SPIRIT. 



95 



of a very active little animal, which I think he calls the 
ichneumon, that makes it the whole business of his life to 
break the eggs of the crocodile, which he is always in 
search after. This instinct is the more remarkable because 
the ichneumon never feeds upon the eggs he has broken, 
nor in any other way finds his account in them. Were 
it not for the incessant labors of this industrious animal, 
Egypt, says the historian, would be overrun with croco- 
diles ; for the Egyptians are so far from destroying those 
pernicious creatures that they worship them as gods. 

6 If we look into the behavior of ordinary partisans, we 
shall find them far from resembling this disinterested 
animal, and rather acting after the example of the wild 
Tartars, who are ambitious of destroying a man of the 
most extraordinary parts and accomplishments, as think- 
ing that upon his decease the same talents, whatever post 
they qualified him for, enter of course into his destroyer. 

7 As in the whole train of my speculations I have endeav- 
ored, as much as I am able, to extinguish that pernicious 
spirit of passion and prejudice which rages with the same 
violence in all parties, I am still the more desirous of 
doing some good in this particular because I observe that 
the spirit of party reigns more in the country than in the 
town. It here contracts a kind of brutality and rustic 
fierceness to which men of a politer conversation are 
wholly strangers. It extends itself even to the return of 
the bow and the hat ; and at the same time that the heads 
of parties preserve toward one another an outward show 
of good breeding, and keeps up a perpetual intercourse of 
civilities, their tools that are dispersed in these outlying 
parts will not so much as mingle together at a cock-match. 
This humor fills the country with several periodical meet- 



96 THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS. 

ings of Whig jockeys and Tory fox hunters, not to men- 
tion the innumerable curses, frowns, and whispers it pro- 
duces at a quarter sessions. 

8 I do not know whether I have observed, in any of my 
former papers, that my friends Sir Roger de Coverley and 
Sir Andrew Freeport are of different principles ; the first 
of them inclined to the landed, and the other to the mon- 
eyed interest. This humor is so moderate in each of them 
that it proceeds no farther than to an agreeable raillery, 
which very often diverts the rest of the club. I find, 
however, that the knight is a much stronger Tory in the 
country than in town, which, as he has told me in my ear, 
is absolutely necessary for the keeping up his interest. In 
all our journey from London to his house, we did not so 
much as bait at a Whig inn; or if by chance the coach- 
man stopped at a wrong place, one of Sir Roger's servants 
would ride up to his master full speed, and whisper to 
him that the master of the house was against such an one 
in the last election. This often betrayed us into hard 
beds and bad cheer; for we were not so inquisitive 
about the inn as the innkeeper; and provided our land- 
lord's principles were sound, did not take any notice of 
the staleness of his provisions. This I found still the 
more inconvenient because the better the host was, the 
worse generally were his accommodations; the fellow 
knowing very well that those who were his friends would 
take up with coarse diet and an hard lodging. For these 
reasons, all the while I was upon the road I dreaded 
entering into an house of any one that Sir Roger had 
applauded for an honest man. 

p Since my stay at Sir Roger's in the country, I daily find 
more instances of this narrow party humor. Being upon a 



PARTY SPIRIT. 97 

bowling green at a neighboring market town the other day 
(for that is the place where the gentlemen of one side 
meet once a week), I observed a stranger among them of 
a better presence and genteeler behavior than ordinary; 
but was much surprised that, notwithstanding he was a 
very fair better, nobody would take him up. But upon 
inquiry, I found that he was one who had given a dis- 
agreeable vote in a former parliament, for which reason 
there was not a man upon that bowling green who would 
have so much correspondence with him as to win his 
money of him. 

10 Among other instances of this nature, I must not omit 
one which concerns myself. Will Wimble was the other 
day relating several strange stories, that he had picked up, 
nobody knows where, of a certain great man; and upon 
my staring at him, as one that was surprised to hear such 
things in the country, which had never been so much as 
whispered in the town, Will stopped short in the thread of 
his discourse, and after dinner asked my friend Sir Roger 
in his ear if he was sure that I was not a fanatic. 

11 It gives me a serious concern to see such a spirit of 
dissension in the country; not only as it destroys virtue 
and common sense, and renders us in a manner barba- 
rians towards one another, but as it perpetuates our ani- 
mosities, widens our breaches, and transmits our present 
passions and prejudices to our posterity. For my own 
part, I am sometimes afraid that I discover the seeds of a 
civil war in these our divisions, and therefore cannot but 
bewail, as in their first principles, the miseries and calami- 
ties of our children. C. 



98 THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS 



XXI. GYPSIES AT COVERLEY. 
No. 130.] Monday, July 30, 171 1. [Addison. 

Semperque recentes 
Convectare juvat praedas', et vivere rapto. 

Virg. 

1 As I was yesterday riding out in the fields with my 
friend Sir Roger, we saw at a little distance from us a 
troop of gypsies. Upon the first discovery of them, my 
friend was in some doubt whether he should not exert the 
justice of the peace upon such a band of lawless vagrants ; 
but not having his clerk with him, who is a necessary 
counsellor on these occasions, and fearing that his poultry 
might fare the worse for it, he let the thought drop ; but 
at the same time gave me a particular account of the mis- 
chiefs they do in the country, in stealing people's goods 
and spoiling their servants. " If a stray piece of linen 
hangs upon an hedge," says Sir Roger, " they are sure to 
have it ; if the hog loses his way in the fields, it is ten to 
one but he becomes their prey ; our geese cannot live in 
peace for them ; if a man prosecutes them with severity, 
his henroost is sure to pay for it. They generally straggle 
into these parts about this time of the year, and set the 
heads of our servant-maids so agog for husbands that we 
do not expect to have any business done as it should be 
whilst they are in the country. I have an honest dairy- 
maid who crosses their hands with a piece of silver every 
summer, and never fails being promised the handsomest 
young fellow in the parish for her pains. Your friend, 
the butler, has been fool enough to be seduced by them ; 
and, though he is sure to lose a knife, a fork, or a spoon, 



GYPSIES AT COVZRLEY. 



99 



every time his fortune is told him, generally shuts himself 
up in the pantry with an old gypsy for above half an hour 
once in a twelvemonth. Sweethearts are the things they 
live upon, which they bestow very plentifully upon all 
those that apply themselves to them. You see now and 
then, some handsome young jades among them; the 
[wenches] have very often white teeth and black eyes." 
2 Sir Roger, observing that I listened with great attention 
to his account of a people who were so entirely new to me, 
told me. that if I would they should tell us our fortunes. 
As I was very well pleased with the knight's proposal, 
we rid up and communicated our hands to them. A 
Cassandra of the crew, after having examined my lines 
very diligently, told me that I loved a pretty maid in a 
corner; that I was a good woman's man; with some 
other particulars which I do not think proper to relate. 
My friend Sir Roger alighted from his horse, and expos- 
ing his palm to two or three that stood by him, they 
crumpled it into all shapes, and diligently scanned every 
wrinkle that could be made in it ; when one of them, who 
was older and more sunburnt than the rest, told him that 
he had a widow in his line of life ; upon which the knight 
cried, " Go, go, you are an idle baggage ! " and at the 
same time smiled upon me. The gypsy, finding he was 
not displeased in his heart, told him, after a farther in- 
quiry into his hand, that his true love was constant, and 
that she should dream of him to-night. My old friend 
cried " Pish ! " and bid her go on. The gypsy told him 
that he was a bachelor, but would not be so long ; and that 
he was dearer to somebody than he thought. The knight 
still repeated she was an idle baggage, and bid her go on. 
"Ah, master," says the gypsy, " that roguish leer of yours 

LofC. 



ioo THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS. 

makes a pretty woman's heart ache; you ha'n't that 
simper about the mouth for nothing — ." The uncouth 
gibberish with which all this was uttered, like the dark- 
ness of an oracle, made us the more attentive to it. To 
be short, the knight left the money with her that he had 
crossed her hand with, and got up again on his horse. 

3 As we were riding away, Sir Roger told me that he 
knew several sensible people who believed these gypsies 
now and then foretold very strange things ; and for half 
an hour together appeared more jocund than ordinary. 
In the height of his good humor, meeting a common beg- 
gar upon the road who was no conjurer, as he went to 
relieve him, he found his pocket was picked; that being 
a kind of palmistry at which this race of vermin are very 
dextrous. 

4 I might here entertain my reader with historical re- 
marks on this idle profligate people, who infest all the 
countries of Europe, and live in the midst of governments 
in a kind of commonwealth by themselves. But instead 
of entering into observations of this nature, I shall fill the 
remaining part of my paper with a story which is still 
fresh in Holland, and was printed in one of our monthly 
accounts about twenty years ago : — 

5 " As the trekschuyt, or hackney boat, which carries pas- 
sengers from Leyden to Amsterdam, was putting off, a 
boy running along the side of the canal desired to be taken 
in ; which the master of the boat refused, because the lad 
had not quite money enough to pay the usual fare. An 
eminent merchant, being pleased with the looks of the boy 
and secretly touched with compassion towards him, paid 
the money for him, and ordered him to be taken on board. 

6 " Upon talking with him afterwards, he found that he 
could speak readily in three or four languages, and learned 
upon farther examination that he had been stolen away 



GYPSIES AT COVERLEY. 101 

when he was a child, by a gypsy, and had rambled ever 
since with a gang of those strollers up and down several 
parts of Europe. It happened that the merchant, whose 
heart seems to have inclined towards the boy by a secret 
kind of instinct, had himself lost a child some years before. 
The parents, after a long search for him, gave him for 
drowned in one of the canals with which that country 
abounds; and the mother was so afflicted at the loss of 
a fine boy, who was her only son, that she died for grief 
of it. 

7 " Upon laying together all particulars, and examining 
the several moles and marks by which the mother used to 
describe the child when he was first missing, the boy 
proved to be the son of the merchant whose heart had so 
unaccountably melted at the sight of him. The lad was 
very well pleased to find a father who was so rich, 
and likely to leave him a good estate ; the father, on the 
other hand, was not a little delighted to see a son return 
to him, whom he had given for lost, with such a strength 
of constitution, sharpness of understanding, and skill in 
languages." 

8 Here the printed story leaves off; but if I may give 
credit to reports, our linguist having received such ex- 
traordinary rudiments towards a good education, was 
afterwards trained up in everything that becomes a gentle- 
man; wearing off by little and little all the vicious habits 
and practices that he had been used to in the course of his 
peregrinations. Nay, it is said that he has since been 
employed in foreign courts upon national business, with 
great reputation to himself and honor to those who sent 
him, and that he has visited several countries as a public 
minister, in which he formerly wandered as a gypsy. 

' C. 



102 THE SIR ROGER DE COVERIEY PAPERS. 

XXII. THE SPECTATOR SUMMONED 
TO LONDON. 

No. 131.] Tuesday, July 31, 171 1. [Addison. 

Ipsae rursum concedite silvae. 

Virg. 

1 It is usual for a man who loves country sports to pre- 
serve the game in his own grounds, and divert himself 
upon those that belong to his neighbor. My friend Sir 
Roger generally goes two or three miles from his house, 
and gets into the frontiers of his estate, before he beats 
about in search of a hare or partridge, on purpose to spare 
his own fields, where he is always sure of finding diversion 
when the worst comes to the worst. By this means the 
breed about his house has time to increase and multiply ; 
besides that the sport is the more agreeable where the 
game is the harder to come at, and where it does not lie 
so thick as to produce any perplexity or confusion in the 
pursuit. For these reasons the country gentleman, like 
the fox, seldom preys near his own home. 

2 In the same manner I have made a month's excursion 
out of the town, which is the great field of game for 
sportsmen of my species, to try my fortune in the country, 
where I have started several subjects and hunted them 
down, with some pleasure to myself, and I hope to others. 
I am here forced to use a great deal of diligence before I 
can spring anything to my mind ; whereas in town, whilst 
I am following one character, it is ten to one but I am 
crossed in my way by another, and put up such a variety 
of odd creatures in both sexes that they foil the scent of 
one another, and puzzle the chase. My greatest difficulty 



THE SPECTATOR SUMMONED TO LONDON. 103 

in the country is to find sport, and, in town, to choose it. 
In the meantime, as I have given a whole month's rest to 
the cities of London and Westminster, I promise myself 
abundance of new game upon my return thither. 

3 It is indeed high time for me to leave the country, 
since I find the whole neighborhood begin to grow very 
inquisitive after my name and character ; my love of soli- 
tude, taciturnity, and particular way of life, having raised 
a great curiosity in all these parts. 

4 The notions which have been framed of me are vari- 
ous : some look upon me as very proud, some as very 
modest, and some as very melancholy. Will Wimble, as 
my friend the butler tells me, observing me very much 
alone, and extremely silent when I am in company, is 
afraid I have killed a man. The country people seem to 
suspect me for a conjurer; and, some of them hearing of 
the visit which I made to Moll White, will needs have it 
that Sir Roger has brought down a cunning man with 
him to cure the old woman, and free the country from her 
charms. So that the character which I go under in part of 
the neighborhood, is what they here call a " White 
Witch." 

5 A justice of the peace, who lives about five miles off, 
and is not of Sir Roger's party, has, it seems, said twice 
or thrice at his table that he wishes Sir Roger does not 
harbor a Jesuit in his house, and that he thinks the gen- 
tlemen of the country would do very well to make me 
give some account of myself. 

6 On the other side, some of Sir Roger's friends are 
afraid the old knight is imposed upon by a designing 
fellow, and as they have heard that he converses very 
promiscuously when he is in town, do not know but he 



104 THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS. 

has brought down with him some discarded Whig, that is 
sullen and says nothing because he is out of place. 

7 Such is the variety of opinions which are here enter- 
tained of me, so that I pass among some for a disaffected 
person, and among others for a popish priest; among 
some for a wizard, and among others for a murderer ; and 
all this for no other reason, that I can imagine, but be- 
cause I do not hoot and hollow and make a noise. It is 
true my friend Sir Roger tells them, that it is my way, 
and that I am only a philosopher; but this will not sat- 
isfy them. They think there is more in me than he dis- 
covers, and that I do not hold my tongue for nothing. 

8 For these and other reasons I shall set out for London 
to-morrow, having found by experience that the country 
is not a place for a person of my temper, who does not 
love jollity, and what they call " good neighborhood." A 
man that is out of humor when an unexpected guest 
breaks in upon him, and does not care for sacrificing an 
afternoon to every chance comer ; that will be the master 
of his own time and the pursuer of his own inclinations ; 
makes but a very unsociable figure in this kind of life. I 
shall therefore retire into the town, if I may make use of 
that phrase, and get into the crowd again as fast as I can, 
in order to be alone. I can there raise what speculations I 
please upon others without being observed myself, and at 
the same time enjoy all the advantages of company with 
all the privileges of solitude. In the meanwhile, to finish 
the month, and conclude these my rural speculations, I 
shall here insert a letter from my friend Will Honeycomb, 
who has not lived a month for these forty years out of the 
smoke of London, and rallies me after his way upon my 
country life, 



THE COACH TO LONDON. 105 

9 " Dear Spec, — I suppose this letter will find thee pick- 
ing of daisies, or smelling to a lock of hay, or passing 
away thy time in some innocent country diversion of the 
like nature. I have, however, orders from the club to 
summon thee up to town, being all of us cursedly afraid 
thou wilt not be able to relish our company after thy con- 
versations with Moll White and Will Wimble. Pr'ythee 
don't send us up any more stories of a cock and a bull, nor 
frighten the town with spirits and witches. Thy specula- 
tions begin to smell confoundedly of woods and meadows. 
If thou dost not come up quickly, we shall conclude that 
thou art in love with one of Sir Roger's dairy-maids. 
Service to the knight. Sir Andrew is grown the cock of 
the club since he left us, and if he does not return quickly 
will make every mother's son of us Commonwealth's men. 
"-Dear Spec, thine eternally, 

" Will Honeycomb/' 
C. 

XXIII. THE COACH TO LONDON. 
No. 132.] Wednesday, August 1, 171 1. [Steele. 

Qui aut tempus quid postulet non videt, aut plura loquitur, aut 
se ostentat, aut eorum quibuscum est rationem non habet, is ineptus 
esse dicitur. Tull. 

1 Having notified to my good friend Sir Roger that I 
should set out for London the next day, his horses were 
ready at the appointed hour in the evening; and attended 
by one of his grooms, I arrived at the county town at 
twilight, in order to be ready for the stage-coach the day 
following. As soon as we arrived at the inn, the servant 
who waited upon me inquired of the chamberlain, in my 
hearing, what company he had for the coach. The fellow 
answered, " Mrs. Betty Arable, the great fortune, and 
the widow, her mother ; a recruiting officer, — who took a 



106 THE SIR kOGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS. 

place because they were to go; young Squire Quickset, 
her cousin, — that her mother wished her to be married 
to; Ephraim, the Quaker, her guardian; and a gentle- 
man that had studied himself dumb from Sir Roger de 
Coverley's." I observed, by what*he said of myself, that 
according to his office, he dealt much in intelligence; 
and doubted not but there was some foundation' for his 
reports of the rest of the company, as well as for the 
whimsical account he gave of me. 

2 The next morning at daybreak we were all called ; and 
1, who know my own natural shyness, and endeavor to 
be as little liable to be disputed with as possible, dressed 
immediately, that I might make no one wait. The first 
preparation for our setting out was, that the captain's 
half-pike was placed near the coachman, and a drum 
behind the coach. In the meantime the drummer, the 
captain's equipage, was very loud that none of the cap- 
tain's things should be placed so as to be spoiled; upon 
which his cloak bag was fixed in the seat of the coach ; 
and the captain himself, according to a frequent though 
invidious behavior of military men, ordered his man to 
look sharp that none but one of the ladies should have 
the place he had taken fronting to the coach-box. 

3 We were in some little time fixed in our seats, and 
sat with that dislike which people not too good-natured 
usually conceive of each other at first sight. The coach 
jumbled us insensibly into some sort of familiarity, and 
we had not moved above two miles when the widow asked 
the captain what success he had in his recruiting. The 
officer, with a frankness he believed very graceful, told 
her that indeed he had but very little luck, and had suf- 
fered much by desertion, therefore should be glad to end 



THE COACH TO LONDON. 107 

his warfare in the service of her or her fair daughter. 
" In a word," continued he, "lama soldier, and to be 
plain is my character ; you see me, madam, young, sound, 
and impudent; take me yourself, widow, or give me to 
her ; I will be wholly at your disposal. I am a soldier of 
fortune, ha ! " This was followed by a vain laugh of his 
own, and a deep silence of all the rest of the company. 
I had nothing left for it but to fall fast asleep, which I did 
with all speed. " Come," said he, " resolve upon it, we 
will make a wedding at the next town : we will wake this 
pleasant companion who has fallen asleep, to be the bride- 
man, and," — giving the Quaker a clap on the knee, — 
he concluded, " this sly saint, who, I'll warrant, under- 
stands what's what as well as you or I, widow, shall give 
the bride as father." 

4 The Quaker, who happened to be a man of smartness, 
answered, " Friend, I take it in good part that thou hast 
given me the authority of a father over this comely and 
virtuous child ; and I must assure thee that if I have the 
giving her, I shall not bestow her on thee. Thy mirth, 
friend, savoreth of folly ; thou art a person of a light 
mind ; thy drum is a type of thee, — it soundeth because 
it is empty. Verily, it is not from thy fullness, but thy 
emptiness, that thou hast spoken this day. Friend, friend, 
we have hired this coach in partnership with thee, to carry 
us to the great city ; we cannot go any other way. This 
worthy mother must hear thee if thou wilt needs utter 
thy follies ; we cannot help it, friend, I say ; if thou wilt, 
we must hear thee : but, if thou wert a man of under- 
standing, thou wouldst not take advantage of thy coura- 
geous countenance to abash us children of peace. Thou 
art, thou sayest, a soldier; give quarter to us, who can- 



108 THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS. 

not resist thee. Why didst thou fleer at our friend, who 
feigned himself asleep? He said nothing, but how dost 
thou know what he containeth? If thou speakest im- 
proper things in the hearing of this virtuous young virgin, 
consider it is an outrage against a distressed person that 
cannot get from thee : to speak indiscreetly what we are 
obliged to hear, by being hasped up with thee in this 
public vehicle, is in some degree assaulting on the high 
road." 

5 Here Ephraim paused, and the captain, with an happy 
and uncommon impudence, — which can be convicted and 
support itself at the same time, — cries, " Faith, friend, I 
thank thee; I should have been a little impertinent if 
thou hadst not reprimanded me. Come, thou art, I see 
a smoky old fellow, and I'll be very orderly the ensuing 
part of the journey. I was going to give myself airs ; but, 
ladies, I beg pardon." 

6 The captain was so little out of humor, and our com- 
pany was so far from being soured by this little ruffle, that 
Ephraim and he took a particular delight in being agree- 
able to each other for the future, and assumed their dif- 
ferent provinces in the conduct of the company. Our 
reckonings, apartments, and accommodation fell under 
Ephraim ; and the captain looked to all disputes on the 
road, — as the good behavior of our coachman, and the 
right we had of taking place as going to London of all 
vehicles coming from thence. 

The occurrences we met with were ordinary, and very 
little happened which could entertain by the relation of 
them; but when I considered the company we were in, I 
took it for no small good fortune that the whole journey 
was not spent in impertinences, which to one part of us 
might be an entertainment, to the other a suffering. 



THE COACH TO LONDON. 109 

8 What, therefore, Ephraim said when we were almost 
arrived at London, had to me an air not only of good 
understanding, but good breeding. Upon the young 
lady's expressing her satisfaction in the journey, and 
declaring how delightful it had been to her, Ephraim de- 
clared himself as follows : " There is no ordinary part of 
human life which expresseth so much a good mind, and 
a right inward man, as his behavior upon meeting with 
strangers, especially such as may seem the most unsuit- 
able companions to him: such a man, when he falleth 
in the way with persons of simplicity and innocence, 
however knowing he may be in the ways of men, will not 
vaunt himself thereof; but will the rather hide his supe- 
riority to them, that he may not be painful unto them. 
My good friend," continued he, turning to the officer, 
"thee and I are to part by and by, and peradventure we 
may never meet again; but be advised by a plain man; 
modes and apparel are but trifles to the real man, there- 
fore do not think such a man as thyself terrible for thy 
garb, nor such a one as me contemptible for mine. When 
two such as thee and I meet, with affections as we ought 
to have towards each other, thou shouldst rejoice to see 
my peaceable demeanor, and I should be glad to see thy 
strength and ability to protect me in it." T. 



no THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS. 

XXIV. SIR ROGER AND SIR ANDREW 

FREEPORT. 
No. 174.] Wednesday, Sept. 19, 171 1. [Steele. 

Haec memini et victum frustra contendere Thyrsin. 

Virg. 

1 There is scarce anything more common than animos- 
ities between parties that cannot subsist but by their 
agreement : this was well represented in the sedition of 
the members of the human body in the old Roman fable. 
It is often the case of lesser confederate states against a 
superior power, which are hardly held together, though 
their unanimity is necessary for their common safety ; and 
this is always the case of the landed and trading interest 
of Great Britain : the trader is fed by the product of 
the land, and the landed man cannot be clothed but by 
the skill of the trader ; and yet those interests are ever 
jarring. 

2 We had last winter an instance of this at our club, in 
Sir Roger de Coverley and Sir Andrew Freeport, between 
whom there is generally a constant, though friendly, oppo- 
sition of opinions. It happened that one of the company, 
in an historical discourse, was observing that Carthagin- 
ian faith was a proverbial phrase to intimate breach of 
leagues. Sir Roger said it " could hardly be otherwise ; 
that the Carthaginians were the greatest traders in the 
world, and as gain is the chief end of such a people, they 
never pursue any other, — the means to it are never re- 
garded. They will, if it comes easily, get money honestly ; 
but if not, they will not scruple to attain it by fraud, or 
cozenage. And, indeed, what is the whole business of the 
trader's account, but to overreach him who trusts to his 



SIR ROGER AND SIR ANDREW FREEPORT. in 

memory ? But were that not so, what can there great and 
noble be expected from him whose attention is forever 
fixed upon balancing his books, and watching over his 
expenses ? And at best let frugality and parsimony be the 
virtues of the merchant, how much is his punctual dealing 
below a gentleman's charity to the poor, or hospitality 
among his neighbors ? " 

Captain Sentry observed Sir Andrew very diligent in 
hearing Sir Roger, and had a mind to turn the discourse, 
by taking notice, in general, from the highest to the low- 
est parts of human society, there was " a secret though 
unjust way among men of indulging the seeds of ill-nature 
and envy by comparing their own state of life to that of 
another, and grudging the approach of their neighbor to 
their own happiness : and on the other side, he who is the 
less at his ease, repines at the other who, he thinks, has 
unjustly the advantage over him. Thus the civil and 
military lists look upon each other with much ill-nature : 
the soldier repines at the courtier's power, and the cour- 
tier rallies the soldier's honor; or, to come to lower 
instances, the private men in the horse and foot of an 
army, the carmen and coachmen in the city streets, mutu- 
ally look upon each other with ill-will, when they are in 
competition for quarters or the way, in their respective 
motions." 

4 " It is very well, good captain," interrupted Sir An- 
drew ; " you may attempt to turn the discourse if you think 
fit; but I must, however, have a word or two with Sir 
Roger, who, I see, thinks he has paid me off, and been 
very severe upon the merchant. I shall not," continued he, 
" at this time remind Sir Roger of the great and noble 
monuments of charity and public spirit which have been 



ii2 THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS. 

erected by merchants since the Reformation, but at pres- 
ent content myself with what he allows us, — parsimony 
and frugality. If it were consistent with the quality of so 
ancient a baronet as Sir Roger to keep an account, or 
measure things by the most infallible way, that of num- 
bers, he would prefer our parsimony to his hospitality. If 
to drink so many hogsheads is to be hospitable, we do not 
contend for the fame of that virtue ; but it would be worth 
while to consider whether so many artificers at work ten 
days together by my appointment, or so many peasants 
made merry on Sir Roger's charge, are the men more 
obliged ? I believe the families of the artificers will thank 
me more than the households of the peasants shall Sir 
Roger. Sir Roger gives to his men, but I place mine 
above the necessity or obligation of my bounty. I am in 
very little pain for the Roman proverb upon the Cartha- 
ginian traders ; the Romans were their professed enemies. 
I am only sorry no Carthaginian histories have come to 
our hands ; we might have been taught, perhaps, by them 
some proverbs against the Roman generosity, in fighting 
for and bestowing other people's goods. But since Sir 
Roger has taken occasion from an old proverb to be out 
of humor with merchants, it should be no offence to offer 
one not quite so old in their defence. When a man hap- 
pens to break in Holland, they say of him that ' he has not 
kept true accounts.' This phrase, perhaps, among us 
would appear a soft or humorous way of speaking; but 
with that exact nation it bears the highest reproach. For 
a man to be mistaken in the calculation of his expense, 
in his ability to answer future demands, or to be imperti- 
nently sanguine in putting his credit to too great adven- 
ture, are all instances of as much infamy as, with gayer 
nations, to be failing in courage or common honesty. 



SIR ROGER AND SIR ANDREW FREEPORT. 113 

5 " Numbers are so much the measure of everything that 
is valuable, that it is not possible to demonstrate the suc- 
cess of any action, or the prudence of any undertaking, 
without them. I say this in answer to what Sir Roger 
is pleased to say, that ' little that is truly noble can be 
expected from one who is ever poring on his cashbook or 
balancing his accounts.' When I have my returns from 
abroad, I can tell to a shilling by the help of numbers the 
profit or loss by my adventure; but I ought also to be 
able to show thai I had reason for making it, either from 
my own experience or that of other people, or from a 
reasonable presumption that my returns will be sufficient 
to answer my expense and hazard : and this is never to be 
done without the skill of numbers. For instance, if I am 
to trade to Turkey, I ought beforehand to know the de- 
mand of our manufactures there, as well as of their silks 
in England, and the customary prices that are given for 
both in each country. I ought to have a clear knowledge 
of these matters beforehand, that I may presume upon suf- 
ficient returns to answer the charge of the cargo I have 
fitted out, the freight and assurance out and home, the 
custom to the queen, and the interest of my own money, 
and besides all these expenses, a reasonable profit to 
myself. Now what is there of scandal in this skill? 
What has the merchant done that he should be so little 
in the good graces of Sir Roger? He throws down no 
man's enclosure, and tramples upon no man's corn; he 
takes nothing from the industrious laborer; he pays the 
poor man for his work ; he communicates his profit with 
mankind ; by the preparation of his cargo, and the manu- 
facture of his returns, he furnishes employment and sub- 
sistence to greater numbers than the richest noblenlan; 
8 



ii4 THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS. 

and even the nobleman is obliged to him for rinding out 
foreign markets for the produce of his estate, and for 
making a great addition to his rents : and yet it is certain 
that none of all these things could be done by him without 
the exercise of his skill in numbers. 

6 " This is the economy of the merchant ; and the conduct 
of the gentleman must be the same, unless by scorning to 
be the steward, he resolves the steward shall be the gentle- 
man. The gentleman, no more than the merchant, is able, 
without the help of numbers, to account for the success 
of any action, or the prudence of any adventure. If, for 
instance, the chase is his whole adventure, his only returns 
must be the stag's horns in the great hall and the fox's 
nose upon the stable door. Without doubt Sir Roger 
knows the full value of these returns ; and if beforehand 
he had computed the charges of the chase, a gentleman 
of his discretion would certainly have hanged up all his 
dogs; he would never have brought back so many fine 
horses to the kennel ; he would never have gone so often, 
like a blast, over fields of corn. If such, too, had been 
the conduct of all his ancestors, he might truly have 
boasted, at this day, that the antiquity of his family had 
never been sullied by a trade ; a merchant had never been 
permitted with his whole estate to purchase a room for 
his picture in the gallery of the Coverley's, or to claim 
his descent from the maid of honor. But 'tis very happy 
for Sir Roger that the merchant paid so dear for his ambi- 
tion. 'Tis the misfortune of many other gentlemen to 
turn out of the seats of their ancestors to make way for 
such new masters as have been more exact in their 
accounts than themselves; and certainly he deserves the 
estate a great deal better who has got it by his industry, 
than he who has lost it by his negligence." T. 



SIR ROGER IN LONDON. 115 

XXV. SIR ROGER IN LONDON. 
No. 269.] Tuesday, January 8, 1712. [Addison. 

Aevo rarissima nostro 
Simplicitas. 

Ovid. 

1 I was this morning surprised with a great knocking at 
the door, when my landlady's daughter came up to me and 
told me that there was a man below desired to speak with 
me. Upon my asking her who it was, she told me it was 
a very grave, elderly person, but that she did not know his 
name. I immediately went down to him, and found him 
to be the coachman of my worthy friend, Sir Roger de 
Coverley. He told me that his master came to town last 
night, and would be glad to take a turn with me in Gray's 
Inn Walks. As I was wondering in myself what had 
brought Sir Roger to town, not having lately received any 
letter from him, he told me that his master was come up 
to get a sight of Prince Eugene, and that he desired I 
would immediately meet him. 

2 I was not a little pleased with the curiosity of the old 
knight, though I did not much wonder at it, having heard 
him say more than once in private discourse that he looked 
upon Prince Eugenio — for so the knight always calls him 
— to be a greater man than Scanderbeg. 

3 I was no sooner come into Gray's Inn Walks, but I 
heard my friend upon the terrace hemming twice or thrice 
to himself with great vigor, for he loves to clear his pipes 
in good air, to make use of his own phrase, and is not a 
little pleased with any one who takes notice of the strength 
which he still exerts in his morning hems. 



n6 THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS. 

4 I was touched with a secret joy at the sight of the good 
old man, who before he saw me was engaged in conver- 
sation with a beggar-man that had asked an alms of him. 
I could hear my friend chide him for not finding out some 
work ; but at the same time saw him put his hand in his 
pocket and give him sixpence. 

5 Our salutations were very hearty on both sides, consist- 
ing of many kind shakes of the hand, and several affec- 
tionate looks which we cast upon one another. After 
which the knight told me my good friend his chaplain was 
very well, and much at my service, and that the Sunday 
before he had made a most incomparable sermon out of 
Doctor Barrow. " I have left," says he, " all my affairs 
in his hands, and being willing to lay an obligation upon 
him, have deposited with him thirty marks, to be distrib- 
uted among his poor parishioners." 

6 He then proceeded to acquaint me with the welfare of 
Will Wimble. Upon which he put his hand into his fob 
and presented me, in his name, with a tobacco stopper, 
telling me that Will had been busy all the beginning of 
the winter in turning great quantities of them, and that 
he made a present of one to every gentleman in the coun- 
try who has good principles and smokes. He added that 
poor Will was at present under great tribulation, for that 
Tom Touchy had taken the law of him for cutting some 
hazel sticks out of one of his hedges. 

7 Among other pieces of news which the knight brought 
from his country-seat, he informed me that Moll White 
was dead; and that about a month after her death the 
wind was so very high that it blew down the end of one 
of his barns. " But for my own part," says Sir Roger, " I 
do not think that the old woman had anv hand in it." 



SIR ROGER IN LONDON. 117 

8 He afterwards fell into an account of the diversions 
which had passed in his house during the holidays; for 
Sir Roger, after the laudable custom of his ancestors, 
always keeps open house at Christmas. I learned from 
him that he had killed eight fat hogs for the season, that 
he had dealt about his chines very liberally amongst his 
neighbors, and that in particular he had sent a string of 
hog's-puddings with a pack of cards to every poor family 
in the parish. " I have often thought," says Sir Roger, 
" it happens very well that Christmas should fall out in 
the middle of the winter. It is the most dead, uncom- 
fortable time of the year, when the poor people would 
suffer very much from their poverty and cold if they had 
not good cheer, warm fires, and Christmas gambols to 
support them. I love to rejoice their poor hearts at this 
season, and to see the whole village merry in my great 
hall. I allow a double quantity of malt to my small beer, 
and set it a running for twelve days to every one that calls 
for it. I have always a piece of cold beef and a mince- 
pie upon the table, and am wonderfully pleased to see my 
tenants pass away a whole evening in playing their inno- 
cent tricks, and smutting one another. Our friend Will 
Wimble is as merry as any of them, and shows a thousand 
roguish tricks upon these occasions." 

9 I was very much delighted with the reflection of my old 
friend which carried so much goodness in it. He then 
launched out into the praise of the late Act of Parliament 
for securing the Church of England, and told me, with 
great satisfaction, that he believed it already began to take 
effect, for that a rigid Dissenter, who chanced to dine at 
his house on Christmas day, had been observed to eat 
very plentifully of his plum-porridge. 



n8 THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS. 



10 After having dispatched all our country matters, Sir 
Roger made several inquiries concerning the club, and 
particularly of his old antagonist, Sir Andrew Freeport. 
He asked me with a kind of smile whether Sir Andrew 
had not taken advantage of his absence to vent among 
them some of his republican doctrines; but soon after, 
gathering up his countenance into a more than ordinary 




Bringing in the Yule Log at Christmas. 

seriousness, " Tell me truly," says he, " don't you think 
Sir Andrew had a hand in the Pope's Procession ? " But 
without giving me time to answer him, " Well, well," says 
he, " I know you are a wary man, and do not care to talk 
of public matters." 

11 The knight then asked me if I had seen Prince Eugenio, 
and made me promise to get him a stand in some con- 
venient place, where he might have a full sight of that 
extraordinary man, whose presence does so much honor 
to the British nation. He dwelt very long on the praises 



SIR ROGER IN LONDON 



119 




Dean'B Yard, 



The Plan of Westminster Abbey. 



of this great general, and I found that, since I was with 
him in the country, he had drawn many observations to- 
gether out of his re?ding in Baker's " Chronicle," and 



120 THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS. 

other authors who always lie in his hall window, which 
very much redound to the honor of this prince. 
12 Having passed away the greatest part of the morning in 
hearing the knight's reflections, which were partly private 
and partly political, he asked me if I would smoke a pipe 
with him over a dish of coffee at Squire's. As I love the 
old man, I take delight in complying with everything that 
is agreeable to him, and accordingly waited on him to the 
coffee-house, where his venerable figure drew upon us the 
eyes of the whole room. He had no sooner seated him- 
self at the upper end of the high table, but he called for 
a clean pipe, a paper of tobacco, a dish of coffee, a wax 
candle, and the Supplement, with such an air of cheerful- 
ness and good humor that all the boys in the coffee-room 
— who seemed to take pleasure in serving him — were at 
once employed on his several errands; insomuch that 
nobody else could come at a dish of tea till the knight 
had got all his conveniences about him. L. 



XXVII. SIR ROGER IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 
No. 329.] Tuesday, March 18, 1712. [Addison. 

Ire tamen restat Numa quo devenit et Ancus. 

Hor. 

My friend Sir Roger de Coverley told me t'other night, 
that he had been reading my paper upon Westminster 
Abbey, "in which," says he, " there are a great many 
ingenious fancies." He told me, at the same time, that 
he observed I had promised another paper upon the 
tombs, and that he should be glad to go and see them 



SIR ROGER IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 121 

with me, not having visited them since he had read his- 
tory. I could not at first imagine how this came into the 
knight's head, till I recollected that he had been very 
busy all last summer upon Baker's " Chronicle," which 
he has quoted several times in his disputes with Sir An- 




West Front of Westminster Abbey. 



drew Freeport since his last coming to town. Accord- 
ingly, I promised to call upon him the next morning, that 
we might go together to the Abbey. 

2 I found the knight under his butler's hands, who always 
shaves him. He was no sooner dressed than he called 
for a glass of the Widow Trueby's water, which he told 
me he always drank before he went abroad. He recom- 
mended me to a dram of it at the same time with so much 
heartiness that I could not forbear drinking it. As soon 
as I ha.d got it down, I found it very unpalatable; upon 
which the knight, observing that I had made several wry 



122 THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS. 

faces, told me that he knew I should not like it at first, 
but that it was the best thing in the world against the 
stone or gravel. I could have wished, indeed, that he had 
acquainted me with the virtues of it sooner; but it was 
too late to complain, and I knew what he had done was 
out of good-will. Sir Roger told me, further, that he 
looked upon it to be very good for a man, whilst he stayed 
in town, to keep off infection; and that he got together 
a quantity of it upon the first news of the sickness being 
at Dantzic. When, of a sudden, turning short to one of 
his servants, who stood behind him, he bid him call a 
hackney-coach, and take care it was an elderly man that 
drove it. 

3 He then resumed his discourse upon Mrs. Trueby's 
water, telling me that the Widow Trueby was one who 
did more good than all the doctors and apothecaries in 
the county; that she distilled every poppy that grew 
within five miles of her; that she distributed her water 
gratis among all sorts of people : to which the knight 
added that she had a very great jointure, and that the 
whole country would fain have it a match between him 
and her. " And truly," said Sir Roger, " if I had not 
been engaged, perhaps I could not have done better." 

4 His discourse was broken off by his man's telling him 
he had called a coach. Upon our going to it, after having 
cast his eye upon the wheels, he asked the coachman if 
his axle-tree was good; upon the fellow's telling him he 
would warrant it, the knight turned to me, told me he 
looked like an honest man, and went in without further 
ceremony. 

5 We had not gone far, when Sir Roger, popping out his 
head, called the coachman down from his box, and upon 



SIR ROGER IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 123 

his presenting himself at the window, asked him if he 
smoked; as I was considering what this would end in, 
he bid him stop by the way at any good tobacconist's, and 
take in a roll of their best Virginia. Nothing material 
happened in the remaining part of our journey till we 
were set down at the west end of the Abbey. 

6 As we went up the body of the church, the knight 
pointed at the trophies upon one of the new monuments, 
and cried out, "A brave man, I warrant him ! " Passing 
afterwards by Sir Cloudesley Shovel, he flung his hand 
that way, and cried, " Sir Cloudesley Shovel ! a very gal- 
lant man ! " As we stood before Busby's tomb, the knight 
uttered himself again after the same manner : " Dr. Busby 
— a great man ! he whipped my grandfather — a very 
great man ! I should have gone to him myself if I had 
not been a blockhead ; — a very great man ! " 

7 We were immediately conducted into the little chapel 
on the right hand. Sir Roger, planting himself at our 
historian's elbow, was very attentive to everything he said, 
particularly to the account he gave us of the lord who had 
cut off the King of Morocco's head. Among several other 
figures, he was very well pleased to see the statesman Cecil 
upon his knees ; and, concluding them all to be great men, 
was conducted to the figure which represents that martyr 
to good housewifery who died by the prick of a needle. 
Upon our interpreter's telling us that she was a maid of 
honor to Queen Elizabeth, the knight was very inquisitive 
into her name and family; and after having regarded 
her finger for some time, " I wonder," says he, " that Sir 
Richard Baker has said nothing of her in his ' Chron- 
icle.' " 

8 We were then conveyed to the two coronation chairs, 



i2 4 THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS. 




Edward the Confessor's Chapel, Showing Both Coronation Chairs. 

where my old friend, after having heard that the stone 
underneath the most ancient of them, which was brought 
from Scotland, was called Jacob's Pillar, sat himself down 
in the chair, and looking like the figure of an old Gothic 






SIR ROGER IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 125 

king, asked our interpreter what authority they had to say 
that Jacob had ever been in Scotland. The fellow, instead 
of returning him an answer, told him that he hoped his 
honor would pay his forfeit. I could observe Sir Roger 
a little ruffled upon being thus trepanned ; but, our guide 
not insisting upon his demand, the knight soon recovered 
his good humor, and whispered in my ear that if Will 
Wimble were with us, and saw those two chairs, it would 
go hard but he would get a tobacco-stopper but of one or 
t'other of them. 

9 Sir Roger, in the next place, laid his hand upon Edward 
the Third's sword, and leaning upon the pommel of it, 
gave us the whole history of the Black Prince ; concluding 
that, in Sir Richard Baker's opinion, Edward the Third 
was one of the greatest princes that ever sat upon the 
English throne. 

10 We were then shown Edward the Confessor's tomb, 
upon which Sir Roger acquainted us that he was the first 
who touched for the evil; and afterwards Henry the 
Fourth's, upon which he shook his head and told us there 
was fine reading in the casualties in that reign. 

11 Our conductor then pointed to that monument where 
there is the figure of one of our English kings without an 
head ; and upon giving us to know that the head, which 
was of beaten silver, had been stolen away several years 
since, — " Some Whig, I'll warrant you," says Sir Roger; 
" you ought to lock up your kings better ; they will carry 
off the body too, if you don't take care." 

12 The glorious names of Henry the Fifth and Queen 
Elizabeth gave the knight great opportunities of shining 
and of doing justice to Sir Richard Baker, who, as our 
knight observed with some surprise, had a great many 



126 THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS. 




Poets' Corner. 

kings in him whose monuments he had not seen in the 

Abbey. 

13 For my own part, I could not but be pleased to see the 

knight show such an honest passion for the glory of his 

country, and such a respectful gratitude to the memory of 

its princes. 



SIR ROGER AT THE PLAY. 127 

1*1 must not omit that the benevolence of my good old 
friend, which flows out towards every one he converses 
with, made him very kind to our interpreter, whom he 
looked upon as an extraordinary man; for which reason 
he shook him by the hand at parting, telling him that he 
should be very glad to see him at his lodgings in Norfolk 
Buildings, and talk over these matters with him more at 
leisure. L. 

XXVII. SIR ROGER AT THE PLAY. 
No. 335.] Tuesday, March 25, 1712. [Addison. 

Respicere exemplar vitae morumque iubebo 
Doctum imitatorem, et vivas hinc ducere voces. 

Hor. 

1 My friend Sir Roger de Coverley, when we last met 
together at the club, told me that he had a great mind to 
see the new tragedy with me, assuring me at the same 
time that he had not been at a play these twenty years. 
" The last I saw," said Sir Roger, " was the 'Committee,' 
which I should not have gone to, neither had not I been 
told beforehand that it was a good Church of England 
comedy." He then proceeded to inquire of me who this 
distressed mother was; and upon hearing that she was 
Hector's widow, he told me that her husband was a brave 
man, and that when he was a school-boy he had read his 
life at the end of the dictionary. My friend asked me, 
in the next place, if there would not be some danger in 
coming home late, in case the Mohocks should be abroad. 
"' I assure you," says he, " I thought I had fallen into their 
hands last night, for I observed two or three lusty black 



128 THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS. 

men that followed me half way up Fleet Street, arrd 
mended their pace behind me in proportion as I put on to 
get away from them. You must know," continued the 
knight, with a smile, " I fancied they had a mind to hunt 
me, for I remember an honest gentleman in my neighbor- 
hood who was served such a trick in King Charles the 
Second's time ; for which reason he has not ventured 
himself in town ever since. I might have shown them 
very good sport had this been their design ; for, as I am 




A Street Scene. 



an old fox hunter, I should have turned and dodged, 
and have played them a thousand tricks they had never 
seen in their lives before." Sir Roger added that if 
these gentlemen had any such intention they did not 
succeed very well in it ; " for I threw them out," says 
he, " at the end of Norfork Street, where I doubled the 
corner and got shelter in my lodgings before they could 
imagine what was become of me. However," says the 
knight, " if Captain Sentry will make one with us to- 
morrow night, and if you will both of you call upon me 



SIR ROGER AT THE PLAY. 129 

about four o'clock, that we may be at the house before 
it is full, I will have my own coach in readiness to attend 
you, for John tells me he has got the fore wheels 
mended." 

2 The captain, who did not fail to meet me there at the 
appointed hour, bid Sir Roger fear nothing, for that he 
had put on the same sword which he made use of at the 
battle of Steenkirk. Sir Roger's servants, and among 
the rest my old friend the butler, had, I found, provided 
themselves with good oaken plants to attend their master 
upon this occasion. When he had placed him in his coach, 
with myself at his left hand, the captain before him, 
and his butler at the head of his footmen in the rear, we 
convoyed him in safety to the playhouse, where, after 
having marched up the entry in good order, the captain 
and I went in with him, and seated him betwixt us in the 
pit. As soon as the house was full and the candles lighted, 
my old friend stood up and looked about him with that 
pleasure which a mind seasoned with humanity naturally 
feels in itself at the sight of a multitude of people who 
seem pleased with one another, and partake of the same 
common entertainment. I could not but fancy to myself, 
as the old man stood up in the middle of the pit, that he 
made a very proper centre to a tragic audience. Upon 
the entering of Pyrrhus, the knight told me that he did 
not believe the King of France himself had a better strut. 
I was , indeed, very attentive to my old friend's remarks, 
because I looked upon them as a piece of natural criti- 
cism ; and was well pleased to hear him, at the conclusion 
of almost every scene, telling me that he could not im- 
agine how the play would end. One while he appeared 
much concerned for Andromache, and a little while after 
9 



130 THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS. 

as much for Hermione; and was extremely puzzled to 
think what would become of Pyrrhus. 

3 When Sir Roger saw Andromache's obstinate refusal 
to her lover's importunities, he whispered me in the ear, 
that he was sure she would never have him ; to which he 
added, with a more than ordinary vehemence, " You can't 
imagine, sir, what 'tis to have to do with a widow ! " 
Upon Pyrrhus his threatening afterwards to leave her, 
the knight shook his head, and muttered to< himself, 
" Ay, do if you can." This part dwelt so much upon my 
friend's imagination, that at the close of the third act, 
as I was thinking of something else, he whispered in my 
ear, " These widows, sir, are the most perverse creatures 
in the world. But pray," says he, " you that are a critic, 
is this play according to your dramatic rules, as you call 
them? Should your people in tragedy always talk to be 
understood? Why, there is not a single sentence in this 
play that I do not know the meaning of." 

4 The fourth act very luckily began before I had time 
to give the old gentleman an answer. " Well," says the 
knight, sitting down with great satisfaction, " I suppose 
we are now to see Hector's ghost." He then renewed 
his attention, and, from time to time, fell a praising the 
widow. He made, indeed, a little mistake as to one of her 
pages, whom at his first entering he took for Astyanax; 
but he quickly set himself right in that particular, though 
at the same time he owned he should have been very glad 
to have seen the little boy, " who," says he, " must needs 
be a very fine child by the account that is given of him." 

5 Upon Hermione's going off with a menace to Pyrrhus, 
the audience gave a loud clap, to which Sir Roger added, 
" On my word, a notable young baggage !" 



SIR ROGER AT THE PLAY. 131 

6 As there was a very remarkable silence and stillness in 
the audience during the whole action, it was natural for 
them to take the opportunity of these intervals between 
the acts to express their opinion of the players and of their 
respective parts. Sir Roger, hearing a cluster of them 
praise Orestes, struck in with them, and told them that he 
thought his friend Pylades was a very sensible man ; as 
they were afterwards applauding Pyrrhus, Sir Roger put 
in a second time : " And let me tell you," says he, " though 
he speaks but little, I like the old fellow in whiskers as 
well as any of them." Captain Sentry, seeing two or 
three wags who sat near us lean with an attentive ear 
towards Sir Roger, and fearing lest they should smoke 
the knight, plucked him by the elbow, and whispered 
something in his ear that lasted till the opening of 
the fifth act. The knight was wonderfully attentive to 
the account which Orestes gives of Pyrrhus his death, 
and, at the conclusion of it, told me it was such a 
bloody piece of work that he was glad it was not done 
upon the stage. Seeing afterwards Orestes in his raving 
fit, he grew more than ordinary serious, and took occa- 
sion to moralize, in his way, upon an eyil conscience, 
adding that Orestes in his madness looked as if he 
saw something. 

7 As we were the first that came into the house, so we 
were the last that went out of it ; being resolved to have 
a clear passage for our old friend, whom we did not care 
to venture among the justling of the crowd. Sir Roger 
went out fully satisfied with his entertainment, and we 
guarded him to his lodgings in the same manner that we 
brought him to the playhouse ; being highly pleased, 
for my own part, not only with the performance of the 



132 THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS. 

excellent piece which had been presented, but with the 
satisfaction which it had given to the good old man. 

L. 



xxviii. sir Roger and will honeycomb. 

No. 359.] Tuesday, April 22, 1712. [Budgell. 

Torva leaena lupum sequitur, lupus ipse capellam ; 
Florentem cytisum sequitur lasciva capella. 

Virg. 

1 As we were at the club last night, I observed that my 
friend Sir Roger, contrary to his usual custom, sat very 
silent, and instead of minding what was said by the com- 
pany, was whistling to himself in a very thoughtful mood, 
and playing with a cork. I jogged Sir Andrew Freeport 
who sat between us ; and as we were both observing him, 
we saw the knight shake his head and heard him say to 
himself, " A foolish woman ! I can't believe it." Sir 
Andrew gave him a gentle pat upon the shoulder, and 
offered to lay him a bottle of wine that he was thinking 
of the widow. My old friend started, and, recovering out 
of his brown study, told Sir Andrew that once in his life 
he had been in the right. In short, after some little 
hesitation, Sir Roger told us, in the fullness of his heart, 
that he had just received a letter from his steward, which 
acquainted him that his old rival and antagonist in the 
county, Sir David Dundrum, toad been making a visit to 
the widow. " However," says Sir Roger, " I can never 
think that she'll have a man that's half a year older than 
I am, and a noted Republican into the bargain." 



SIR ROGER AND WILL HONEYCOMB. 133 

2 Will Honeycomb, who looks upon love as his particular 
province, interrupting our friend with a jaunty laugh, 
" I thought, knight," says he, " thou hadst lived long 
enough in the world not to pin thy happiness upon one 
that is a woman and a widow. I think that without 
vanity I may pretend to know as much of the female world 
as any man in Great Britain, though the chief of my 
knowledge consists in this, — that they are not to be 
known." Will immediately, with his usual fluency, 
rambled into an account of his own amours. " I am 
now," says he, " upon the verge of fifty " (though, by 
the way, we all knew he was turned of threescore). 
"You may easily guess," continued Will, "that I have 
not lived so long - in the world without having had 
some thoughts of settling in it, as the phrase is. To tell 
you truly, I have several times tried my fortune that 
way, though I can't much boast of my success. 

3 " I made my first addresses to a young lady in the coun- 
try ; but when I thought things were pretty well drawing 
to a conclusion, her father happening to hear that I had 
formerly boarded with a surgeon, the old put forbid me 
his house, and within a fortnight after married his daugh- 
ter to a fox hunter in the neighborhood. 

4 I made my next applications to a widow, and attacked 
her so briskly that I thought myself within a fortnight 
of her. As I waited upon her one morning, she told me 
that she intended to keep her ready money and jointure 
in her own hand, and desired me to call upon her at- 
torney in Lyon's Inn, who would adjust with me what 
it was proper for me to add to it. I was so rebuffed 
by this overture that I never inquired either for her or 
her attorney afterwards. 



134, THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS. 

5 "A few months after, I addressed myself to a young 
lady who was an only daughter and of a good family ; I 
danced with her at several balls, squeezed her by the 
hand, said soft things to her, and, in short, made no doubt 
of her heart ; and, though my fortune was not equal 
to hers, I was in hopes that her fond father would not 
deny her the man she had fixed her affections upon. 
But, as I went one day to the house in order to break the 
matter to him, I found the whole, family in confusion, 
and heard, to my unspeakable surprise, that Miss Jenny 
was that very morning run away with the butler. 

6 " I then courted a second widow, and am at a loss to 
this day how I came to miss her, for she had often com- 
mended my person and behavior. Her maid, indeed, 
told me one day that her mistress had said she never 
saw a gentleman with such a spindle pair of legs as Mr. 
Honeycomb. 

7 " After this I laid siege to four heiresses successively, 
and being a handsome young dog in those days, quickly 
made a breach in their hearts ; but I don't know how it 
came to pass, though I seldom failed of getting the 
daughter's consent, I could never in my life get the old 
people on my side. 

8 " I could give you an account of a thousand other un- 
successful attempts particularly of one which I made 
some years since upon an old woman, whom I had cer- 
tainly borne away with flying colors if her relations had 
not come pouring in to her assistance from all parts of 
England; nay, I believe I should have got her at last, 
had not she been carried off by an hard frost." 

9 As Will's transitions are extremely quick, he turned 
from Sir Roger, and applying himself to me, told me 



SIR ROGER AND WILL HONEYCOMB. 135 

there was a passage in the book I had considered last 
Saturday which deserved to be writ in letters of gold; 
and taking out a pocket Milton, read the following lines, 
which are part of one of Adam's speeches to Eve after 
the fall: — 

" Oh ! why did our 
Creator wise, that peopled highest Heaven 
With Spirits masculine, create at last 
This novelty on Earth, this fair defect 
Of Nature, and not fill the World at once 
With men as Angels, without feminine ; 
Or find some other way to generate 
Mankind? This mischief had not then befallen, 
And more that shall befall — innumerable 
Disturbances on Earth through female snares, 
And straight conjunction with this sex. For either 
He never shall find out fit mate, but such 
As some misfortune brings him, or mistake ; 
Or whom he wishes most shall seldom gain, 
Through her perverseness, but shall see her gained 
By a far worse, or, if she love, withheld 
By parents ; or his happiest choice too late 
Shall meet, already linked and wedlock-bound 
To a fell adversary, his hate or shame : 
Which infinite calamity shall cause 
To human life, and household peace confound." 

10 Sir Roger listened to this passage with great attention, 
and desiring Mr. Honeycomb to fold down a leaf at the 
place and lend him his book, the knight put it up in his 
pocket, and told us that he would read over those verses 
again before he went to bed. X. 



136 THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS. 

XXIX. SIR ROGER AT VAUXHALL. 
No. 383.] Tuesday, May 20, 171 2. [Addison. 

Criminibus debent hortos. 

Juv. 

1 As I was sitting in my chamber and thinking on a sub- 
ject for my next Spectator, I heard two or three irregular 
bounces at my landlady's door, and upon the opening of 
it, a loud, cheerful voice inquiring whether the philoso- 
pher was at home. The child who went to the door an- 
swered very innocently that he did not lodge there. I 
immediately recollected that it was my good friend Sir 
Roger's voice, and that I had promised to go with 
him on the water to Spring Garden, in case it proved 
a good evening. The knight put me in mind of my 
promise from the bottom of the staircase, but told me 
that if I was speculating he would stay below till I had 
done. Upon my coming down, I found all the children of 
the family got about my old friend, and my landlady her- 
self who is a notable prating gossip, engaged in a confer- 
ence with him, being mightily pleased with his stroking 
her little boy upon the head, and bidding him be a good 
child and mind his book. 

2 We were no sooner come to the Temple Stairs but we 
were surrounded with a crowd of watermen, offering us 
their respective services. Sir Roger, after having looked 
about him very attentively, spied one with a wooden leg, 
and immediately gave him orders to get his boat ready. 
As we were walking towards it, " You must know," says 
Sir Roger, " I never make use of anybody to row me that 



138 THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS. 

has not either lost a leg or an arm. I would rather bate 
him a few strokes of his oar than not employ an honest 
man that had been wounded in the Queen's service. If 
I was a lord or a bishop, and kept a barge, I would not 
put a fellow in my livery that had not a wooden leg." 

3 " My old friend, after having seated himself and 
trimmed the boat with his coachman, — who, being a very 
sober man, always serves for ballast on these occasions, 
— we made the best of our way for Fox-hall. Sir Roger 
obliged the waterman to give us the history of his right 
leg, and hearing that he had left it at La Hogue, with 
many particulars which passed in that glorious action, 
the knight, in the triumph of his heart, made several 
reflections on the greatness of the "British nation; as, 
that one Englishman could beat three Frenchmen; that 
we could never be in danger of popery so long as we 
took care of our fleet ; that the Thames was the noblest 
river in Europe ; that London Bridge was a greater piece 
of work than any of the seven wonders of the world ; with 
many other honest prejudices which naturally cleave to 
the heart of a true Englishman. 

4 After some short pause, the old knight, turning about 
his head twice or thrice to take a survey of this great 
metropolis, bid me observe how thick the city was set with 
churches, and that there was scarce a single steeple on 
this side Temple Bar. "A most heathenish sight ! " says 
Sir Roger ; " there is no religion at this end of the town. 
The fifty new churches will very much mend the pros- 
pect ; but church work is slow, church work is slow ! " 

5 I do not remember I have anywhere mentioned, in Sir 
Roger's character, his custom of saluting everybody that 
passes by him with a good-morrow or a good-night. 



II 

■it 

I 



i #iflr i 1 1 lis 







j4o THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS. 

This the old man does out of the overflowings of his hu- 
manity, though at the same time it renders him so popular 
among; all his country neighbors that it is thought to have 
gone a good way in making him once or twice knight of 
the shire. 

6 He cannot forbear this exercise of benevolence even in 
town, when he meets with any one in his morning or 
evening walk. It broke from him to several boats that 
passed by us upon the water; but to the knight's great 
surprise, as he gave the good-night to two or three young 
fellows a little before our landing, one of them, instead of 
returning the civility, asked us what queer old put we had 
in the boat, with a great deal of the like Thames ribaldry. 
Sir Roger seemed a little shocked at first, but at length, 
assuming a face of magistracy, told us that if he were a 
Middlesex justice he would make such vagrants know 
that her Majesty's subjects were no more to be abused by 
water than by land. 

7 We were now arrived at Spring Garden, which is exqui- 
sitely pleasant at this time of year. When I considered 
the fragrancy of the walks and bowers, with the choirs 
of birds that sung upon the trees, and the loose tribe of 
people that walked under their shades, I could not but 
look upon the place as a kind of Mahometan paradise. 
Sir Roger told me it put him in mind of a little coppice 
by his house in the country, which his chaplain used to call 
an aviary of nightingales. " You must understand," says 
the knight, " there is nothing in the world that pleases a 
man in love so much as your nightingale. Ah, Mr. Spec- 
tator ! the many moonlight nights that I have walked by 
myself and thought on the widow by the music of the 
nightingales ! " He here fetched a deep sigh, and was 



DEATH OF SIR ROGER. 141 

falling into a fit of musing, when a mask, who came 
behind him, gave him a gentle tap upon the shoulder, and 
asked him if he would drink a bottle of mead with her. 
But the knight, being startled at so unexpected a familiar- 
ity, and displeased to be interrupted in his thoughts of the 
widow, told her she was a wanton baggage, and bid her 
go about her business. 

8 We concluded our walk with a glass of Burton ale arid 
a slice of hung beef. When we had done eating, our- 
selves, the knight called a waiter to him and bid him carry 
the remainder to the waterman that had but one leg. I 
perceived the fellow stared upon him at the oddness of the 
message, and was going to be saucy ; upon which I ratified 
the knight's commands with a peremptory look. 

9 As we were going out of the garden, my old friend, 
thinking himself obliged as a member of the quorum to 
animadvert upon the morals of the place, told the mistress 
of the house, who sat at the bar, that he should be a better 
customer to her garden if there were more nightingales 
and fewer (masks). I. 



XXX. DEATH OF SIR ROGER. 
No. 517.] Thursday, October 23, 1712. [Addison. 

Heu pietas ! heu prisca fides ! 

Virg. 

1 We last night received a piece of ill news at our club 
which very sensibly afflicted every one of. us. I question 
not but my readers themselves will be troubled at the 
hearing of it. To keep them no longer in suspense, — Sir 



142 THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS. 

Roger cle Coverley is dead. He departed this life at his 
house in the country, after a few weeks' sickness. Sir 
Andrew Freeport has a letter from one of his correspond- 
ents in those parts, that informs him the old man caught 
a cold at the county sessions, as he was very warmly 
promoting an address of his own penning, in which he 
succeeded according to his wishes. But this particular 
comes from a Whig justice of peace, who was always Sir 
Roger's enemy and antagonist. I have letters both from 
the chaplain and Captain Sentry which mention nothing 
of it, but are filled with many particulars to the honor of 
the good old man. I have likewise a letter from the butler, 
who took so much care of me last summer when I was at 
the knight's house. As my friend the butler mentions, in 
the simplicity of his heart, several circumstances the others 
have passed over in silence, I shall give my reader a copy 
of his letter without any alteration or diminution. 
" Honoured Sir, — 

2 " Knowing that you was my old master's good friend, 
1 could not forbear sending you the melancholy news of 
his death which has afflicted the whole country, as well as 
his poor servants, who loved him, I might say, better 
than we did our lives. I am afraid he caught his death 
the last county sessions, where he would go to see justice 
done to a poor widow woman, and her fatherless children, 
that had been wronged by a neighbouring gentleman ; for 
you know, sir, my good master was always the poor man's 
friend. Upon his coming home, the first complaint he 
made was, that he had lost his roast beef stomach, not 
being able to touch a sirloin, which was served up accord- 
ing to custom ; and you know he used to take great delight 
in it. From that time forward he grew worse and worse, 
but still kept a good heart to the last. Indeed, we were 
once in great hope of his recovery, upon a kind message 



DEATH OF SIR ROGER: 143 

that was sent him from the widow lady whom he had 
made love to the forty last years of his life; but this 
only proved a lightening before death. He has bequeathed 
to this lady, as a token of his love, a great pearl neck- 
lace, and a couple of silver bracelets set with jewels, 
which belonged to my good old lady his mother. He 
has bequeathed the fine white gelding, that he used to 
ride a hunting upon, to his chaplain, because he thought 
he would be kind to him, and has left you all his books. 
He has, moreover, bequeathed to the chaplain a very 
pretty tenement with good lands about it. It being a very 
cold day when he made his will, he left for mourning, to 
every man in the parish, a great frieze coat, and to every 
woman a black riding-hood. It was a most moving sight 
to see him take leave of his poor servants, commending 
us all for our fidelity, whilst we were not able to speak 
a word for weeping. As we most of us are grown gray- 
headed in our dear master's service, he has left us pen- 
sions and legacies, which we may live very comfortably 
upon, the remaining part of our days. He has bequeath'd 
a great deal more in charity, which is not yet come to 
my knowledge, and it is peremptorily said in the parish, 
that he has left money to build a steeple to the church ; 
for he was heard to say some time ago, that if he lived 
two years longer, Coverley Church should have a steeple 
to it. The chaplain tells everybody that he made a very 
good end, and never speaks of him without tears. He 
was buried according to his own directions, among the 
family of the Coverley's, on the left hand of his father, 
Sir Arthur. The coffin was carried by six of his tenants, 
and the pall held up by six of the quorum. The whole 
parish follow' d the corpse with heavy hearts, and in their 
mourning suits, the men in frieze, and the women in 
riding-hoods. Captain Sentry, my master's nephew, has 
taken possession of the hall house, and the whole estate. 
When my old master saw him a little before his death, 
he shook him by the hand, and wished him joy of the 
estate which was falling to him, desiring him only to 



i 4 4 THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS. 

make good use of it, and to pay the several legacies, and 
the gifts of charity which he told him he had left as 
quitrents upon the estate. The captain truly seems a 
courteous man, though he says but little. He makes 
much of those whom my master loved, and shows great 
kindness to the old house dog, that you know my poor 
master was so fond of. It would have gone to your 
heart to have heard the moans the dumb creature made 
on the day of my master's death. He has ne'er joyed 
himself since ; no more has any of us. 'Twas the melan- 
choliest day for the poor people that ever happened in 
Worcestershire. This being all from, 
Honoured Sir, 

" Your most Sorrowful Servant, 

" Edward Biscuit. 

3 " P. S. My master desired, some weeks before he died, 
that a book which comes up to you by the carrier should 
be given to Sir Andrew Freeport, in his name." 

4 This letter, notwithstanding the poor butler's manner of 
writing it, gave us such an idea of our good old friend, 
that upon the reading of it there was not a dry eye in the 
club. Sir Andrew, opening the book, found it to be a 
collection of Acts of Parliament. There was in particular 
the Act of Uniformity, with some passages in it marked 
by Sir Roger's own hand. Sir Andrew found that they 
related to two or three points which he had disputed with 
Sir Roger the last time he appeared at the club. Sir 
Andrew, who would have been merry at such an incident 
on another occasion, at the sight of the old man's hand- 
writing burst into tears, and put the book into his pocket. 
Captain Sentry informs me that the knight has left rings 
and mourning for every one in the club. O. 



THE VISION OF MIRZA. 



H5 



XXXI. THE VISION OF MIRZA. 
No. 159]. Saturday, Sept. 1, 171 1. [Addison. 

— Omnem quae nunc obducta tuenti 
Mortales hebetat visus tibi, et humida circum 
Caligat, nubem eripiam. 

Virg. 

1 When I was at Grand Cairo I picked up several Ori- 
ental manuscripts, which I have still with me. Among 
others I met with one entitled, " The Vision of Mirza," 
which I have read over with great pleasure. I intend 
to give it to the public when I have no other entertain- 
ment for them; and shall begin with the first vision, 
which I have translated word for word as follows : 

2 " On the fifth day of the moon, which according to 
the custom of my forefathers I always kept holy, after 
having washed myself, and offered up my morning de- 
votions, I ascended the high hills of Bagdat, in order 
to pass the rest of the day in meditation and prayer. As 
I was here airing myself on the tops of the mountains, 
I fell into a profound contemplation on the vanity of 
human life; and passing from one thought to another, 
' surely,' said I, ' man is but a shadow and life a dream.' 
Whilst I was thus musing, I cast my eyes toward the 
summit of a rock that was not far from me, where I 
discovered one in the habit of a shepherd, with a musical 
instrument in his hand. As I looked upon him he applied 
it to his lips, and began to play upon it. The sound of 
it was exceeding sweet, and wrought into a variety of 
tunes that were inexpressibly melodious, and altogether 
different from anything I had ever heard. They put me 



i 4 6 THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS. 

in mind of those heavenly airs that are played to the de- 
parted souls of good men upon their first arrival in 
paradise, to wear out the impressions of their last agonies 
and qualify them for the pleasures of that happy place. 
My heart melted away in secret raptures. 

3 " I had often been told that the rock before me was the 
haunt of a genius ; and that several had been entertained 
with music who had passed by it, but never heard that 
the musician had before made himself visible. When 
he had raised my thoughts, by those transporting airs 
which he played, to taste the pleasures of his conversa- 
tion, as I looked upon him like one astonished, he 
beckoned to me, and by the waving of his hand directed 
me to approach the place where he sat. I drew near 
with that reverence which is due to a superior nature ; and 
as my heart was entirely subdued by the captivating 
strains I had heard, I fell down at his feet and wept. The 
genius smiled upon me with a look of compassion and 
affability that familiarized him to my imagination, and 
at once dispelled all the fears and apprehensions with 
which I approached him. He lifted me from the ground, 
and taking me by the hand, ' Mirza/ said he, ' I have 
heard thee in thy soliloquies, follow me.' 

4 " He then led me to the highest pinnacle of the rock, and 
placed me on the top of it. ' Cast thy eyes eastward/ 
said he, ■ and tell me what thou seest.' ' I see/ said I, 
' a huge valley and a prodigious tide of water rolling 
through it.' ' The valley that thou seest,' said he, ' is the 
valley of misery, and the tide of water that thou seest 
is part of the great tide of eternity.' ' What is the rea- 
son,' said I, ' that the tide I see rises out of a thick mist 
at one end, and again loses itself in a thick mist at the 



THE VISION OF MIRZA. i 47 

other end ? ' ' What thou seest,' said he, ' is that portion 
of eternity which is called time, measured out by the 
sun, and reaching from the beginning of the world to 
its consummation. Examine now,' said he, ' this sea that 
is thus bounded with darkness at both ends, and tell 
me what thou discoverest in it.' ' I see a bridge/ said I, 
■ standing in the midst of the tide.' ' The bridge thou 
seest,' said he, ' is human life ; consider it attentively.' 
Upon a more leisurely survey of it, I found that it con- 
sisted of threescore and ten entire arches, with several 
broken arches, which added to those that were entire, 
made up the number about an hundred. As I was count- 
ing the arches the genius told me that this bridge con- 
sisted at first of a thousand arches ; but that a great flood 
swept away the rest, and left the bridge in the ruinous 
condition I now beheld it. ' But tell me, further,' said 
he, ' what thou discovereth on it.' ' I see multitudes of 
people passing over it,' said I, ' and a black cloud hanging 
on each end of it.' As I looked more attentively, I saw 
several of the passengers dropping through the bridge, 
into the great tide that flowed underneath it; and upon 
further examination perceived there were innumerable 
trap-doors that lay concealed in the bridge, which the 
passengers no sooner trod upon, but they fell through 
them into the tide and immediately disappeared. These 
hidden pit-falls were set very thick at the entrance of the 
bridge, so that throngs of people no sooner broke through 
the cloud, but many of them fell into them. They grew 
thinner towards the middle, but multiplied and lay closer 
together towards the end of the arches that were entire. 
5 "There were indeed some persons, but their number was 
very small, that continued a kind of hobbling march on 



148 THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS. 

the broken arches, but fell through one after another, 
being quite tired and spent with so long a walk. 

6 " I passed some time in the contemplation of this won- 
derful structure, and the great variety of objects which it 
presented. My heart was filled with a deep melancholy 
to see several dropping unexpectedly in the midst of 
mirth and jollity, and catching at everything that stood 
by them to save themselves. Some were looking up to- 
wards the heavens in a thoughtful posture, and in the 
midst of a speculation stumbled and fell out of sight. 
Multitudes were very busy in the pursuit of baubles that 
glittered in their eyes and danced before them, but often 
when they thought themselves within the reach of them, 
their footing failed and down they sunk. In this con- 
fusion of objects, I observed some with scimitars in their 
hands, who ran to and fro upon the bridge, thrusting 
several persons upon trap-doors which did not seem to 
lie in their way, and which they might have escaped had 
they not been thus forced upon them. 

7 " The genius seeing me indulge myself in this melan- 
choly prospect, told me I had dwelt long enough upon 
it. ' Take thine eyes off the bridge,' said he, ' and tell 
me if thou seest anything thou dost not comprehend/ 
Upon looking up, ' What mean,' said I, ' those great 
flights of birds that are perpetually hovering about the 
bridge, and settling upon it from time to time? I see 
vultures, harpies, ravens, cormorants, and among many 
other feathered creatures, several light-winged boys, that 
perch in great numbers upon the middle arches.' ' These 
said the genius, ' are envy, avarice, superstition, despair, 
love, with the like, cares and passions, that infect human 
life.' 



THE VISION OF MIRZA. 149 

8 " I here fetched a deep sigh. 'Alas/ said I, ' man was 
made in vain ! How is he given away to misery and 
mortality ! tortured in life, and swallowed up in death ! ' 
The genius, being moved with compassion toward me, bid 
me quit so uncomfortable a prospect. ' Look no more/ 
said he, ' on man in the first stage of his existence, in 
his setting out for eternity; but cast thine eye on that 
thick mist into which the tide bears the several genera- 
tions of mortals that fall into it.' I directed my sight as 
I was ordered, and (whether or no the good genius 
strengthened it with any supernatural force, or dissipated 
part of the mist that was before too thick for the eye to 
penetrate) I saw the valley opening at the farther end 
and spreading forth into an immense ocean, that had a 
huge rock of adamant running through the midst of it 
and dividing it into two equal parts. The clouds still 
rested on one half of it, insomuch that I could discover 
nothing in it ; but the other appeared to me a vast ocean 
planted with innumerable islands, that were covered with 
fruits and flowers, and interwoven with a thousand little 
shining seas that ran among them. I could see persons 
dressed in glorious habits with garlands upon their heads, 
passing ^among the trees, lying down by the side of the 
fountains, or resting on beds of flowers; and could hear 
a confused harmony of singing birds, falling waters, 
human voices, and musical instruments. Gladness grew 
in me upon the discovery of so delightful a scene. I 
wished for the wings of an eagle, that I might fly away 
to those happy seats ; but the genius told me there was no 
passage to them, except through the gates of death that 
I saw opening every moment upon the bridge. ' The is- 
lands/ said he, ' that lie so fresh and green before thee, 



150 THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS. 

and with which the whole face of the ocean appears 
spotted as far as thou canst see, are more in number 
than the sands on the seashore; there are myriads of 
islands behind those which thou here discoverest, reach- 
ing farther than thine eye, or even thine imagination 
can extend itself. These are the mansions of good 
men after death, who, according to the degree and 
kinds of virtue in which they excelled, are distributed 
among these several islands, which abound with pleas- 
ure of different kinds and degrees, suitable to the 
relishes and perfections of those who are settled in 
them ; every island is a paradise, accommodated to its 
respective inhabitants. Are not these, O Mirza, habita- 
tions worth contending for ? Does life appear miserable, 
that gives thee opportunities of earning such a reward? 
Is death to be feared, that will convey thee to so happy 
an existence? Think not man was made in vain, who 
has such an eternity reserved for him.' I gazed with in- 
expressible pleasure on these happy islands. At length 
said I, ' Show me now, I beseech thee, the secrets that he 
hid under those dark clouds which cover the ocean on the 
other side of the rock of adamant.' The genius making 
me no answer, I turned about to address myself to him 
a second time, but I found that he had left me. I then 
turned again to the vision which I had been so long con- 
templating, but, instead of the rolling tide, the arched 
bridge, and the happy islands, I saw nothing but the long 
hollow valley of Bagdat, with oxen, sheep, and camels 
grazing upon the sides of it! C. 



THE GOLDEN SCALES. 151 

XXXII. THE GOLDEN SCALES. 
No. 463.] Thursday, August 21, 1712. [Addison. 

Omnia quae sensu volvuntur vota diurno 

Pectore sopito reddit arnica quies. 
Venator defesso toro cum membra reponit 

Mens tamen ad sylvas et sua lustra redit. 
Judicibus lites, aurigis somnia currus, 

Vanaque nocturnis meta cavetur equis. 
Me quoque Musarum studium sub nocte silenti 

Artibus assuetis sollicitare solet. 

Claud. 

1 I was lately entertaining myself with comparing 
Homer's balance, in which Jupiter is represented as 
weighing the fates of Hector and Achilles, with a pas- 
sage of Virgil, wherein that deity is introduced as weigh- 
ing the fates of Turnus and yEneas. I then considered 
how the same way of thinking prevailed in the eastern 
parts of the world, as in those noble passages of Scrip- 
tures where we are told that the great king of Babylon, 
the day before his death, had been weighed in the balance, 
and been found wanting. In other places of the holy 
writings, the Almighty is described as weighing the 
mountains in scales, making the weight for the winds, 
knowing the balancings of the clouds; and, in others, 
as weighing the actions of men, and laying their calami- 
ties together in a balance. Milton, as I have observed in 
a former paper, had an eye to several of these foregoing 
instances, in that beautiful description wherein he repre- 
sents the archangel and the evil spirit as addressing 
themselves for the combat, but parted by the balance 



152 THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS. 

which appeared in the heavens, and weighed the conse- 
quences of such a battle. 

2 " Th' Eternal to prevent such horrid fray 

Hung forth in Heaven his golden Scales, yet seen 
Betwixt Astrea and the Scorpion sign, 
Wherein all things created first he weighed, 
The pendulous round Earth with balanced air 
In counterpoise, now ponders all events, 
Battles and realms ; in these he puts two weights 
The sequel each of parting and of fight, 
The latter quick up flew, and kicked the beam : 
Which Gabriel spying, thus bespoke the Fiend : 

" ' Satan, I know thy strength, and thou know'st mine, 
Neither our own, but given ; what folly then 
To boast what arms can do, since thine no more 
Than Heaven permits ; nor mine, though doubled now 
To trample thee as mire : for proof look up, 
And read thy lot in yon celestial sign-, 
Where thou art weighed, and shown how light, how 

weak, 
If thou resist.' The Fiend looked up, and knew 
His mounted Scale aloft ; nor more, but fled 
Murm'ring, and with him fled the shades of night." 

4 These several amusing thoughts having taken posses- 
sion of my mind sometime before I went to sleep, and 
mingling themselves with my ordinary ideas, raised in my 
imagination a very odd kind of vision. I was, me- 
thought, replaced in my study, and seated in my elbow- 
chair, where. I had indulged the foregoing speculations, 
with my lamp burning by me, as usual. Whilst I was 
here meditating on several subjects of morality, and con- 
sidering the nature of many virtues and vices, as ma- 
terials for those discourses with which I daily entertain 



THE GOLDEN SCALES. 153 

the public, I saw, methought, a pair of golden scales 
hanging by a chain in the same metal over the table that 
stood before me, when, on a sudden, there were great 
heaps of weights thrown down on each side of them. I 
found upon examining these weights, they showed the 
value of everything that is in esteem among men. I made 
an essay of them, by putting the weight of wisdom in 
one scale, and that of*riches in another, upon which the 
latter, to show its comparative lightness, immediately 
' flew up and kicked the beam.' 

5 But, before I proceed, I must inform my reader that 
these weights did not exert their natural gravity, till 
they were laid in the golden balance, insomuch that I 
could not guess which was light or heavy, whilst I held 
them in my hand. This I found by several instances, 
for upon my laying a weight in one of the scales, which 
was inscribed by the word Eternity ; though I threw in 
that of time, prosperity, affliction, wealth, poverty, inter- 
est, success, with many other weights, which in my hand 
seemed very ponderous, they were not able to stir the 
opposite balance, nor could they have prevailed, though 
assisted with the weight of the sun, the stars, and the 
earth. 

6 Upon emptying the scales, I laid several titles and 
honours, with pomps, triumphs, and many weights of 
the like nature, in one of them, and seeing a little glitter- 
ing weight lie by me, I threw it accidentally into the other 
scale, when, to my great surprise, it proved so exact a 
counterpoise that it kept the balance in an equilibrium. 
This little glittering weight was inscribed upon the edges 
of it with the word Vanity. I found there were several 
other weights which were equally heavy, and exact coun- 



154 THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS. 

terpoise to one another ; a few of them I tried, as avarice 
and poverty, riches and content, with some oftiers. 

7 There were likewise several weights that were of the 
same figure, and seemed to correspond with each other, 
but were entirely different when thrown into the scales, 
as religion and hypocrisy, pedantry and learning, wit 
and vivacity, superstition and devotion, gravity and wis- . 
dom, with many others. % 

8 I observed one particular weight lettered on both sides, 
and upon applying myself to the reading of it, I found 
on one side written, " In the dialect of men," and under- 
neath it, " Calamities; " on the other side was written, 
" In the language of the gods," and underneath, "Bless- 
ings." I found the intrinsic value of this weight to be 
much greater than I imagined, for it overpowered health, 
wealth, good fortune, and many other weights, which 
were much more ponderous in my hand than the other. 

9 There is a saying among the Scotch, that " an ounce of 
mother is worth a pound of clergy ; " I was sensible of 
the truth of this saying, when I saw the difference be- 
tween the weight of natural parts and that of learning. 
The observation which I made upon these two weights 
opened to me a new field of discoveries, for notwithstand- 
ing the weight of natural parts was much heavier than 
that of learning, I observed that it weighed an hundred 
times heavier than it did before, when I put learning into 
the same scale with it. I made the same observation 
upon faith and morality; for notwithstanding the latter 
outweighed the former separately, it received a thousand 
times more additional weight from its conjunction with 
the former, than what it had by itself. This odd phe- 
nomenon showed itself in other particulars, as in wit 



THE GOLDEtf SCALES. 155 

and judgment, philosophy and religion, justice and hu- 
manity, zeal and charity, depth of sense and perspicuity 
of style, with innumerable other particulars, too long to 
be mentioned in this paper. 

10 As a dream seldom fails of dashing seriousness with 
impertinence, mirth with gravity, methought I made 
several other experiments of a more ludicrous nature, by 
one of which I found that an English octavo was very 
often heavier than a French folio; and by another, that 
an old Greek or Latin author weighed down a whole 
library of moderns. Seeing one of my Spectators lying 
by me, I laid it into one of the scales, and flung a two- 
penny piece in the other. The reader will not inquire 
into the event, if he remembers the first trial which I 
have recorded in this paper. I afterwards threw both 
the sexes into the balance ; but as it is not for my interest 
to disoblige either of them, I shall desire to be excused 
from telling the result of this experiment. Having an 
opportunity of this nature in my hands, I could not for- 
bear throwing into one scale the principles of a Tory, 
and in the other scale those of a Whig; but as I have 
all along declared this to be a neutral paper, I shall like- 
wise desire to be silent under this head also, though 
upon examining one of the weights, I saw the word 
TEKEL engraven on it in capital letters. 
Ill made many other experiments, and though I have 
not room for them all in this day's speculation, I may 
perhaps reserve them for another. I shall only add, that 
upon my awakening I was sorry to find my golden scales 
vanished, but resolved for the future to learn this lesson 
from them, not to despise or value any things for their 
appearances, but to regulate my esteem and passions 
towards them according to their real and intrinsic value. 

C. 



[ 57 




In Queen Anne's time, the district south of the Thames was not thickly settled. In the 
vicinity of London Bridge, the Borough of Southwark was building up; westward along the 
river, there was "one fairly well-built row of houses; " the greater part of the district north 
of Lambeth Palace was a marsh; further south, the village of Vauxhall, however, had 
become important on account of the pleasure gardens located there. 

From both banks of the Thames, stairways led down to the .many landing places 
required for the numerous boats used for transportation from place to place along the river. 
See " Sir Roger at Vauxhall." 



II II 



NOTES. 



I. THE SPECTATOR. 

No. i. Motto: " He plans that no flash end in smoke, but that 
smoke break into flames, to bring forth in succession wondrous 
beauties." Horace, Ars Poet., ver. 143. 

Mottoes: The Spectator in No. 370 says: "Many of my fair 
readers, as well as very gay and well received persons of the other 
sex, are extremely perplexed at the Latin sentences at the head of 
my speculations ; I do not know whether I ought not to indulge 
them with translations of each of them." In No. 221, he says: " I 
must confess, the motto is of little use to an unlearned reader, for 
which reason, I consider it only as a word to the wise. But as for 
my unlearned friends, if they cannot relish the motto, I take care 
to make provision for them in the body of my paper. If they do 
not understand the sign that is hung out, they know very well by 
it that they may meet with entertainment in the house ; and I think 
I was never better pleased than with a plain man's compliment, who, 
upon his friend's telling him that he would like The Spectator much 
better if he understood the motto, replied that good wine needs no 
bush." (Note. A bush was formerly the sign of a tavern.) In the 
same number (221) he also says: "The natural love to Latin which 
is so prevalent in our common people, makes me think that my 
speculations fare never the worse among them for that little scrap 
which appears at the head of them ; and what the more encourages 
me in the use of quotations in an unknown tongue is, that I hear 
the ladies, whose approbation I value more than that of the whole 
learned world, declare themselves in a more particular manner pleased 
with my Greek mottoes." 

1 Is this first statement true? Black, dark, in contrast with 
fair. Choleric; the bile was believed by the ancients to be the 
seat of the temper, hence this word means quick tempered. Several 
persons, these are presented in No. 2. 

2. What is the importance of a hereditary estate in England ? 
How many years had this estate been in the family? Whole and 
entire; is this tautology? Compare this account of the Spectator 
with Irving's "Account of the Author," in the Sketch Book ; also 
with Addison, as presented in Macaulay's " Essay on Addison." 
Note how seriously this dream was taken ; he must perforce be a 
great man, since his mother had dreamed that he was to become a 
lawyer. Note also his wonderful precocity. 

157 



158 NOTES AND QUESTIONS. 

2 Parts, talents. Why are the Latin and Greek called the learned 
languages? What characteristic of Addison is especially emphasized 
in this paragraph ? As the following papers are read, look for evi- 
dences of this quality in the Spectator. 

4 For an account of Addison's travels see Macaulay's " Essay on 
Addison," paragraph 35, et seq. Do you recall other authors who 
have travelled on the Continent? Why should this have become a 
common practice? Would but show it; what characteristic of Addi- 
son is suggested here ? Why is it used ? Could the word " whim- 
sical " be used of such humor as this ? • 

Grand Cairo; in 1646, John Greaves, an oriental scholar, who 
visited Egypt, and measured the pyramids with mathematical instru- 
ments, published a work entitled Pyramidographia, or, A Discourse 
of the Pyramids in Egypt. In 1706 a posthumous pamphlet on the 
same subject appeared. Is this last sentence satirical? If so, at 
what is it aimed ? 

5 Why a round of politicians? Does No. 2 explain the phrase, 
select friends? Postman, a journal edited by a French Protestant, 
Fonvive ; it was considered a good newspaper. Coff ee-houses, 
interesting information concerning these meeting places, which were 
common to all classes of people, may be found in Spectators, No. 
46, 49, 148, 197, 403, 476, and 521 ; also in Macaulay's History of 
England, chap. iii. 

At this time there were over two thousand coffee-houses in Lon- 
don. Of these, the Sir Roger de Coverley papers refer to seven. 
Note carefully what is said of each, and of the habits of those who 
frequent them. Will's took its name from William Urwin, the 
landlord. It was in Russell Street, and was much frequented by 
men of letters. Here a chair was reserved for Dryden, near the 
fireplace in the winter time, on the balcony in summer. In The 
Tatler, Steele dated his literary notes from Will's. The literary 
circle to which Addison belonged met at Button's, so that in time 
the character of Will's changed, and it became noted for its card- 
playing. Child's, in St. Paul's Churchyard, near the College of 
Physicians and the Royal Society, became especially noted as a 
resort for clergymen and scientists. St. James's, near St. James's 
Palace, was the favorite meeting place of the Whig statesmen and 
members of Parliament. The Tatler' s foreign and domestic news 
was dated from St. James's. The Grecian, opened by a Greek in 
1652, in Devereux Court, Strand, was the first coffee-house estab- 
lished in London, and the last to close its doors. Near the Temple, 
it was patronized by lawyers and scholars. A duel is said to have 
been the outcome of a quarrel over a Greek accent, which took place 
in this house. The Tatler' s essays on learned subjects were dated 
from here. The Cocoa Tree, of which Defoe wrote, " A Whig 
would no more go to the Cocoa Tree or Ozinda's than a Tor; ..ould 
be seen at St. James's," was in St. James's Street, and the resort of 
Tory statesmen and men of fashion. Jonathan's in Change Alley, a 



I. THE SPECTATOR. 159 

meeting place for stock-jobbers, was the original of the present stock 
exchange." 

" The coffee-houses of the eighteenth century formed a neutral 
meeting ground for men of all conditions ; no decently attired person 
was refused admittance, provided he laid down his penny at the bar. 
The excellent rules in force prevented any ill effects from this admix- 
ture of classes. " If a man swore, he was fined 1 s. ; and if he 
began a quarrel, he was fined ' dishes ' round. Discussion on religion 
was prohibited, no card-playing or dicing was allowed, and no wager 
might be made exceeding 5 s. These were the simple rules generally 
used, and, if they were only complied with, all must have felt the 
benefit of such a mild despotism." — Ashton : Social Life in the Reign 
of Queen Anne, vol. i., chap, xviii. 

Ashton quotes the following : " These houses, which are very 
numerous in London, are extremely convenient. You have all man- 
ner of news there ; you have a good fire, which you may sit by as 
long as you please ; you have a dish of coffee ; you meet your friends 
for the transaction of business ; and all for a penny, if you don't 
care to spend more." — Henri de Valbourg Mission : Memoires el 
observations faites par un voyageur en Angleterre (1698). The 
same, translated by M. Ozell (1719). 

In No. 403 of The Spectator, Addison describes a visit to some 
of the principal coffee-houses of his day. He says : " When any pub- 
lic affair is upon the anvil, I love to hear the reflections that arise 
upon it in the several districts and parishes of London and West- 
minster, and to ramble up and down a whole day together, in order 
to make myself acquainted with the opinions of my ingenious 
countrymen, . . . and as every coffee-house has some particular 
statesman belonging to it, who is the mouth of the street where he 
lives, I always take care to place myself near him, in order to 
know his judgment on the present posture of affairs." — See also 
Spectator, No. 49. 

Drury Lane and Haymarket, noted theaters, the former the 
oldest in London and the fourth built upon the spot. The one to 
which Addison refers was the second one, and was built by Sir 
Christopher Wren. The Haymarket of Addison's time was built in 
1705. 

6 How does this sum up the preceding paragraphs? What humor 
in this paragraph? Original meaning of economy? Was Addison 
Whig or Tory? 

Whig, originally applied to the Presbyterians in Scotland ; it 
came, to mean those who wanted a parliamentary form of govern- 
ment; to-day this party is known as the Liberal. Tory, originally 
applied to certain bands of outlaws in Ireland ; it came to mean 
those who upheld the " Divine right of kings ; " to-day this party 
is known as the Conservative. The words became party terms in 
England about 1680. 

9 Little Britain, a short street in London, running out of Alders- 



160 NOTES AND QUESTIONS. 

gate Street, near St. Bartholomew's Hospital. In the days of Queen 
Anne it was noted for its bookstores. Read Irving's account of 
" Little Britain," in his Sketch Book. The first issue of The Spec- 
tator was published here March i, 171 1. An advertisement of it 
says, " Printed for Sam Buckley at the Dolphin, and sold by A. Bald- 
win, in Warwick Lane." 

General Questions. How does the name Spectator suit these 
papers ? How does the author advertise his paper ? What does he 
say is its purpose ? How has he aroused natural curiosity con- 
cerning future numbers? Has he created a friendly feeling toward 
it? How does the motto suit this paper? Is it appropriate as a 
motto for the series of papers to be issued? In this essay at what 
social customs or conditions has he aimed his satire? 

C. The letters used by Addison in signing his papers were C, L, 
I, O ; these, it will be noticed, spell the name of Clio, the muse 
of history. In No. 221 of The Spectator, Addison says that these 
capital letters " have afforded great matter of speculation to the 
curious." ..." They are, perhaps, little amulets or charms to pre- 
serve the paper against the fascination and malice of evil eyes ; for 
which reason I would not have my reader surprised if hereafter he 
sees any of my papers marked with a Q, a Z, a Y, an &c, or with 
the word Abracadabra." Morley characterizes as baseless the sug- 
gestion of Dr. Calders, that when Addison signed C he wrote at 
Chelsea, when L in London, when I in Ireland, and when O at the 
office. 

II. THE SPECTATOR CLUB. 

No. 2. Motto: " Six more at least join their consenting voice." 
Juvenal: Sat., vii, 167. 

The Club referred to is known as the Spectator Club. Although 
a small club, it represented a wide range of interests. Its mem- 
bers are introduced here by the Spectator himself ; in No. 34, each 
speaks for himself. Sir Roger de Coverley represents the country 
gentry and Toryism ; Sir Andrew Freeport, the commercial interests 
of the nation and Whiggism ; the Templar, the Clergyman, and Cap- 
tain Sentry, the law, the Church, and the army ; Will Honeycomb, 
fashion and society. Much time and effort have been expended to 
discover the identity of these people, and others mentioned in the 
different numbers of The Spectator, but without avail. Read what 
Addison himself says in the last paragraph of No. 34. Also the fol- 
lowing from No. 262. " I write after such a manner that nothing 
may be interpreted as aimed at private persons. For this reason, 
when I draw any faulty character, I consider all those persons to 
whom the malice of the world may possibly apply it ; and take care 
to dash it with such particular circumstances as may prevent all 
such ill-natured applications. If I write anything on a black man, 
I run over in my mind all the eminent persons in the nation who 
are of that complexion ; when I place an imaginary name at the head 



//.- THE SPECTATOR CLUB. 161 

of a character, I examine every syllable and letter of it, that it 
may not bear any resemblance to one that is real. I know very 
well the value every man sets upon his reputation, and how painful 
it is to be exposed to the mirth and derision of the public ; and 
should therefore scorn to divert my reader at the expense of any 
private man. 

" I would not make myself merry even with a piece of paste- 
board that is invested with a public character ; for which reason I 
have never glanced upon the late designed procession of his Holi- 
ness and his attendants, notwithstanding it might have afforded mat- 
ter to many ludicrous speculations. Among those advantages which 
the public may reap from this paper, it is not the least that it draws 
men's minds off from the bitterness of party, and furnishes them 
with subjects of discourse that may be treated without warmth or 
passion. This is said to have been the first design of those gentle- 
men who set on foot the Royal Society ; and had then a very good 
effect, as it turned many of the greatest geniuses of that age to the 
disquisitions of natural knowledge, who, if they had engaged in 
politics with the same parts and application, might have set their 
country in a flame. The air-pump, the barometer, the quadrant, and 
the like inventions, were thrown out to those busy spirits, as tubs and 
barrels are to a whale, that he may let the ship sail on without dis- 
turbance, while he diverts himself with those innocent amusements. ,: 

In another part of the same paper, he says : — 

" My paper flows from no satirick vein, 
Contains no poison, and conveys no pain. 

" I think myself highly obliged to the public for their kind 
acceptance of a paper which visits them every morning, and has 
in it none of those seasonings that recommend so many of the 
writings which are in vogue among us. 

"As, on the one side, my paper has not in it a single word of 
news, a reflection in politics, or a stroke of party ; so, on the 
other, there are no fashionable touches of infidelity, no obscene 
ideas, no satires upon priesthood, marriage, and the like poptilar 
topics of ridicule ; no private scandal, nor anything that may tend 
to the defamation of particular persons, families, or societies. 

" There is not one of those above-mentioned subjects that would 
not sell a very indifferent paper, could I think of gratifying the 
public by such mean and base methods. 

" When I broke loose from that great body of writers who have 
employed their wit and parts in propagating vice and irreligion, I 
did not question but I should be treated as an odd kind of fellow 
that had a mind to appear singular in my way of writing : but the 
general reception I have found convinces me that the world is not 
so corrupt as we are apt to imagine ; and that if those men of parts 
who have been employed in vitiating the age had endeavored to 

ii 



i6 2 NOTES AND QUESTIONS. 

rectify and amend it, they needed not to have sacrificed their good 
sense and virtue to their fame and reputation. No man is so sunk 
in vice and ignorance but there are still some hidden seeds of good- 
ness and knowledge in him ; which give him a relish of such reflec- 
tions and speculations as have an aptness to improve the mind and 
make the heart better." 

Squire; the administration of much of the country law was left 
to the country gentlemen. The lowest office open to them was that 
of justice of the peace, which gave to its holder the title of Squire. 
This officer issued marriage licenses, bound disorderly people over to 
keep the peace, and in the criminal courts, which met quarterly, and 
were known as quarter-sessions, administered the highway, game, 
and poor laws. Twice a year the Superior Court held its sessions, 
known as assizes, in the various counties of England. To these 
sessions the judges of the Superior Court summoned such squires 
as were " eminent for knowledge and prudence." This body of 
squires was known as the quorum. The office of Sheriff of his 
county was also open to the owner of land ; if he were also a knight, 
he might be elected to Parliament. As a rule, their education was 
limited, and they depended very much upon their clerks. 

I Worcestershire, one of the west central counties of England. 
Sir Roger de Coverley; Swift suggested this name for the kindly, 
whimsical squire. Country dance, an open-air dance, in which the 
partners are placed opposite each other in lines. Ashton, Social 
Life in the Reign of Queen Anne, gives the tune, Roger a Calverley, 
named after a knight of the time of Richard I. Do the knight's 
eccentricities indicate any particular strength of character? 

Soho Square, at this time a new and fashionable part of Lon- 
don {Tatler, No. 37). " Soho " is said to have been the battle 
cry of Monmouth, natural son of Charles II. at Sedgemoor. Until 
1773 a house built by the Duke occupied a site in this locality. Note 
the characteristics of a fine gentleman. 

Lord Rochester, died 1680, at the age of thirty-one, a favorite 
of Charles II ; he confessed to Bishop Burnet that he had for " five 
years been continually drunk." Sir George Etheredge was a witty 
writer of some note, who fell downstairs while drunk, and broke his 
neck. In No. 51, Addison discusses the " witty writers of his time." 
Bully Dawson, " a swaggering sharper of Whitefriars " (Morley's 
Note). From No. 517, 2, estimate the age of the youngster at the 
time of the duel. 

Duelling; Steele wrote many papers in The Tatler against the 
custom of duelling. Pepys' Diary, July 29, 1667, shows how slight 
a cause would provoke a duel between the best friends. 

The word humor originally signified moisture, especially ani- 
mal fluids. The four cardinal humors of the ancient physicians 
were blood, yellow bile or choler, phlegm, and melancholy, or the 
black bile ; the proportion of these determined a person's mental 
and physical qualities and disposition. Humor came to mean the 



II. THE SPECTATOR CLUB. 163 

state of the mind in a general way ; then changing or whimsical 
states of the mind. Note the common use of such words as phleg- 
matic, blue, etc. 

A house in the country; we hear more of this than of the town 
house. Reference to No. 329 will show that at the time Sir Roger 
visited Westminster Abbey with the Spectator, he was lodging in 
the Norfold Buildings, a less fashionable location. His tenants 
grow rich, etc., see No. 107. Note in this paragraph that the 
author makes Sir Roger superior to the ordinary country squire ; 
enumerate the points introduced in order to do this. Why have him 
explain a passage in the Game Act? 

The Game Act provided that " no one not having forty pounds 
per annum, or two hundred pounds' worth of goods and chattels, 
may shoot game ; and should they do so, ' then any person having 
lands, tenements, or hereditaments, of the clear yearly value of 
one hundred pounds a year, may take from the person or possession 
of such malefactor or malefactors, and to his own use forever keep, 
such guns, cross-bows, etc., etc.,' and this act was in force until 
1827, when it was repealed." — Ashton : Social Life in the Reign of 
Queen Anne. 

2 The Inner Temple, one of the four Inns of Court and Chan- 
cery. These are voluntary non-corporate legal societies situated 
in London. They originated toward the end of the thirteenth and 
the beginning of the fourteenth century, and were called inns 
because they originally admitted pupils as boarders. They have 
the exclusive right of admitting candidates to the bar, and give 
instructions and examinations for that purpose. These four Inns 
were named from the halls of residence and the meeting places of 
their members : Lincoln's Inn and Gray's Inn, anciently belonging 
to the Earls of Lincoln and Gray ; the Inner and Middle Temple, 
occupying two ranges of buildings on the site of a former estab- 
lishment of the Knights Templars called the Temple, which they 
occupied from 1184 until their downfall in 1313. The old Temple 
Church, which was built on the model of the Holy Sepulcher at 
Jerusalem, and consecrated in the year 1185, still stands here, and 
is one of the four round churches in England ; it contains the 
tombs of some of the early Knights. A member of either the 
Inner or Middle Temple is called a Templar. 

Lincoln's Inn Fields was a public square neighboring Lincoln's 
Inn. " These celebrated fields were frequented from a very early 
time down to the years 1735, by wrestlers, bowlers, cripples, beggars, 
and idle boys." Since that time they have been inclosed with pal- 
ings. Gray's Inn Walks was a popular resort at the time of the 
Spectator. 

Many noted men have lived within these Inns ; among them 
were Bacon, Dr. Johnson, Goldsmith, and Charles Lamb, who was 
born within the Inner Temple. 

The Stage. Although this " was not an age for striking actors 



•i6 4 NOTES AND QUESTIONS. 

or immortal " plays, the theater was a popular resort for all 
classes. In the upper galleries were the mechanics, artisans, and 
the footmen whose masters sat in the pit ; in the lower gallery, 
the plain citizens ; in the pit, the barristers, and young merchants 
of note ; critics like the Templar sat near the front ; fashionable 
lords and ladies in brilliant costumes hired chairs of the actors 
and sat on the stage. 

Women performers were coming into prominence both in the 
drama and in Italian Opera, which had become popular in England. 

At this time the usual dinner hour was either two or four in 
the afternoon, and the plays began at six. Very fashionable peo- 
ple sometimes dined later. The Daily Courant, Oct. 5, 1703, adver- 
tises the fact that the plays are to begin at five o'clock. In Shake- 
speare's time the play began at three o'clock, as the people dined 
before noon. 

Note the humorous contrasts introduced into each sentence of 
this paragraph. What is the author's object in doing this? 

Aristotle, a celebrated Greek philosopher, died b. c. 322 ; 
Longinus, executed a. d. 273, a Greek philosopher and critic, 
were, in Addison's time, counted classic authorities on the criticism 
of art. Judge Littleton, died 1487, wrote a treatise on " Tenures." 
Lord Chief Justice Coke, wrote a commentary on Judge Littleton's 
treatise ; these men were standard English authorities on law. 

The father sends; was the father a squire ? 

Demosthenes, died b. c. 322, a famous Greek orator. Tully, 
Marcus Tullius Cicero, died b. c. 43, the famous Roman orator, 
statesman, and philosopher. 

Business; is this intended as a reflection upon trade or upon 
the Templar for not attending to his law business? Compare this 
passage with No. 108, 7. His familiarity, indicates what concern- 
ing the education of the times? Does this sentence account for 
his taste of books, etc? 

New Inn connected with the Middle Temple. Will's, the coffee- 
house. The Rose, a tavern near Drury Lane Theater, afterwards 
included within the theater by Garrick, was at this time a resort 
of actors and players. Russell Court was off Drury Lane. 

3 Is there any suggestion in the name selected for this char- 
acter? His notions of trade are given more fully in No. 174- 
Sly way of jesting; at whom is this satire aimed? A penny saved; 
what is Poor Richard's maxim? Had Franklin read The Spectator? 
Do these maxims imply miserliness? General trader; is this state- 
ment true? 

4 Captain Sentry; No. 517 gives his relationship to Sir Roger. 
Why does he think himself not fit for the world? A strict honesty; 
what is meant by this sentence ? Never overbearing, etc. ; is this 
happy medium difficult of attainment? Upon what custom or cus- 
toms is this paragraph an attack? 

5 Humorists, meaning? Note the satire in the latter part of 



///. SIR ROGER MORALIZES. 165 

the sentence. Discourse. . . entertain women; what does this 
imply as to the education of women, and the esteem in which they 
were held? 

Duke Of Monmouth, also Duke of Buccleuch, son of Charles II. 
Dryden likens him to Absalom. He was a claimant for the crown 
against the Duke of York, afterwards James II. In 1685, with a 
party of exiles, he invaded England ; but was finally defeated at 
Sedgemoor, the last battle fought on English soil. His execution 
on Tower Hill followed in a few days. 

In the Park. After dinner, Hyde Park was the fashionable 
resort for promenading, riding, or driving. " Here the people take 
the diversion of the ring. In a pretty high place, which lies very 
open, they have surrounded a circumference of two or three hun- 
dred paces in diameter with a sorry kind of balustrade, or rather 
with poles placed upon stakes, but three foot from the ground ; and 
the coaches drive round and round this. When they have turned 
for some time round one way, they face about and turn t'other : 
so rowls the world." Quoted from Mission, a Frenchman, in Ash- 
ton's Social Life in the Reign of Queen Anne. The " Mall " in 
St. James's Park was a fashionable resort for pedestrians in the 
early part of the seventeenth century. One writer says, " Here 
walked the beau bareheaded, — here a French fop, with his hands 
in his pocket. . . . There a cluster of senators talking of State 
affairs . . . and were disturbed by the noisy milk folks, 'A can of 
milk, ladies.' . . ." 

Note the satirical phrases in this paragraph. 

6 Why introduce the clergyman? How many classes of society 
have been introduced? 

General Questions. Describe each class by quoting the most 
characteristic phrases used in presenting them. In what spirit is 
the author's satire? Write a sketch of each of the characters intro- 
duced in these two papers as they appeal to you. Each character 
represents a class — or is a type. 

The student should remember that the very soul of wit con- 
sists in bringing out unexpected contrasts and comparisons. Select 
from this essay illustrations of this power in our author. 

III. SIR ROGER MORALIZES. 

No. 6. Motto: " They believe it a great crime, and one to be 
atoned for by death, if a youth rise not in the presence of age." 
Juvenal: Sat. xiii, 167. 

1 Discuss this paragraph as an introduction. 

2 What expression in this paragraph might be used as the head- 
ing of the essay ? 

Parts, talents or abilities. Scarecrow, note that the author 
again uses a type ; this refers to the numerous beggars in Lincoln's 
Inn Fields. 



166 NOTES AND QUESTIONS. 

How is this a reflection upon the fine gentlemen of No. 2? 

3 To act according to nature and reason; is one man apt to 
be right and. all the other men of his age wrong? Do 2 and 3 mean 
that a man is to be measured by his opportunities? Is Sir Roger's 
rule of conduct a good one? 

4 Does this paragraph afford any insight into the morals of the 
time ? 

5 Are the most polite ages the least virtuous? Compare with 
1, wise rather than honest. 

Sir Richard Blackmore, a court physician and writer of verse ; 
this eulogy of him is not to be taken seriously, as his poems are 
long and tedious. 

Wit and learning; see No. 463, 9. To rescue the Muses; 
what reflection here upon the literature of the time? In this pas- 
sage, does the Spectator make virtue seem desirable? What is his 
lesson to his readers? 

Muses, the nine Greek goddesses who presided over music, learn- 
ing, and the arts. 

6 Mode and Gallantry, fashion and courtesy. 

7 and 8 Athens, a city in ancient Greece, noted for its learning, 
art, and culture. Sparta, a city in Laconia, in southern Greece, 
was the home of the Lacedemonians, who were noted for their 
cultivation of the arts of war and their bravery. 

What is the purpose of this paper? 

IV. CLUB CONCESSIONS. 

No. 34. Motto : " The wild beast spares the creature spotted 
like itself." Juvenal: Sat. xv, 159. 

1 Enumerate the classes represented in the club. In what does 
the humor in this paragraph consist ? Note the " point of view " 
taken by each member of the club. 

2 Why softest manner? Why does Will Honeycomb speak for 
the ladies? 

The Italian Opera and the puppet show had but recently been 
introduced into England. The puppet show, or Punch and Judy, 
was exhibited at this time in Covent Garden. Great license of 
speech was allowed, and occasionally Punch's personal remarks were 
of an unpleasant character. In Spectators, Nos. 5, 13, 14, 18, 22, 
29, and 31, there are additional references to the puppet show and 
to the opera with its pretentious stage settings. Until the reign of 
Henry VIII, Covent Garden was the garden to the Abbey and Con- 
vent of Westminster ; hence its name. It is now a large fruit and 
vegetable market. 

What is the effect produced by such serious points as dress, etc.? 

3 What fitness in Sir Andrew's speaking for the wives and 
daughters? Beaten road; the custom of satirizing the victims of 



V. SIR ROGER'S CLIENT. 167 

the vicious, or the victims of misfortune is referred to in this ex- 
pression. 

4 King Charles II. reigned 1 660-1 685. Horace, b. c. 65-8, and 
Juvenal, a. d. ioo, were Roman satirical poets; and Boileau, 1636- 
171 1, was a French poet and satirist during the reign of Louis XIV. 

Why should the Inns of Court not be attacked? 

5 In what sense were the country squires the ornaments of the 
English nation? 

6 What constitutes the humor? 

7 Apply the story. 

8 The great use; is this true of newspapers in general? Have 
the Spectator and the clergyman the same point of view ? Why is 
the clergyman more liberal than the others? 

9 What makes this humorous ? 

10 Triumvirate, the coalition of Antony, Augustus, and Lepidus, 
after the death of Julius Caesar : see Shakespeare's Julius Cesar IV., 
i., and Plutarch's Life of Mark Antony. How does this reference 
add point to the paper? Why would readers of The Spectator, in 
general, be able to understand it? 

General Questions. How many times in this paper has the pur- 
pose of The Spectator been stated? What is Addison's idea of the 
legitimate use of satire? Contrast this with what you know of the 
satire in Pope's Dunciad, Butler's Hudibras, Swift's Gulliver's 
Travels. 

Note the characteristics of each class as brought out by its de- 
fender. Note also the development of the character of Sir Roger. 

V. SIR ROGER'S CLIENT. 

No. 37. Motto: " No woman's hand had she, apt to the distaff 
and Minerva's skeins." Virgil : Aen. vii, 805. 

Leonora was not the ordinary woman of fashion of her time. 
In No. 323 of The Spectator, a lady of fashion confesses that until 
she had read some of the Spectator's " speculations on that subject" 
she had never thought whether she " passed her time well or ill." 
In her letter, she gives an account of her occupations during 
one week. " Friday afternoon. From twelve to one. Shut myself 
up in my chamber. . . . One in the afternoon. Called for my 
flowered handkerchief. Worked half a violet leaf in it. Eyes 
ached and head out of order. Threw by my work, and read over 
the remaining part of Aurengzebe. From three to four dined." 
" Saturday. Rose at eight o'clock in the morning. Sat down to my 
toilet. From eight to nine. Shifted a patch for half an hour before 
I could determine it. Fixed it above my left eyebrow. From nine 
to twelve. Drank my tea and dressed." These extracts will serve 
as illustrations, and will suggest why the Spectator had time to take 
notes in this " library." 



1 68 NOTES AND QUESTIONS. 

i Noble piece of architecture, pyramid; are these and the fol - 
lowing to be taken seriously? 

2 Could the word grotesque be applied to the whole library? 
China; English ware had not reached a high degree of beauty, and, 
at this time, the porcelain that was most admired came from China 
and Japan. The collection of unusual and often useless pieces was a 
" fad ". of the times. Scaramouches, harlequins, clowns. Fagots, 
persons hired to take the places of others in a company of soldiers. 
Mixed kind of furniture . . . scholar; is this satirical? 

3 Had seen the author; does this mean they were regarded as 
relics? 

John Ogilby, died 1676, published in 1649 the first English 
translation of Virgil. Dryden, with the help of others, translated 
Juvenal's Satires, and published them in 1693. Dryden also made a 
translation of Virgil. 

Cassandra and Cleopatra were French novels in ten and twelve 
volumes which had been translated into English. Astraea was a 
French pastoral romance, which had also been translated into Eng- 
lish. It was of the same school as Sydney's Arcadia, which was 
published after the author's death by his sister, the Countess of 
Pembroke, and from her called Pembroke's Arcadia. 

Sir Isaac Newton, died 1727; John Locke,died 1704; Sir William 
Temple, died 1699. Newton's glory rests upon his scientific works, 
the Principia, and a treatise on Optics ; Locke's on his Essay on the 
Human Understanding ; Temple wrote a series of Essays which 
attracted attention on account of the rank of the author. 

The Grand Cyrus and Clelia were also translations of French 
romances in ten volumes, written by Magdeline Scudery. 

Dr. William Sherlock was Dean of St. Paul's ; Father Nicholas 
Malebranche was one of the best French writers and philosophers 
of his time. Richard Steele's Christian Hero was designed, as he 
himself said, to " fix upon his own mind a strong impression of 
virtue and religion in opposition to a stronger propensity towards 
unwarrantable pleasures." Jeremy Taylor, died 1667, was noted for 
the spirituality of his writings. Seneca was a Roman of the first 
century, whose essays called Morals had been translated into Eng- 
lish. 

The Fifteen Comforts of Matrimony was an English version of 
a popular .French book of the fifteenth century. The Academy of 
Compliments was one of the popular books on manners and speech. 
The Ladies' Calling by the author of the Whole Duty of Man, was 
another of the popular books of the day. 

The Elzevirs were books printed and published by the Elzevir 
family at Amsterdam and other places, from the end of the sixteenth 
to the end of the seventeenth century. 

Baker's Chronicles of the Kings of England. The ninth edi- 
tion appeared in 1696. See Spectator, No. 269, 



VI. COVERLEY HALL. 169 

The New Atalantis was a scandalous book attacking members 
of Whig families under fictitious names, -hence the need of a key. 

Dr. Sacheverell was a Tory clergyman who had been attacked 
by the Whigs ; this Speech was his reply to them. 

Fielding's Trial probably refers to the account of the trial of 
one Fielding for bigamy. 

La Ferte was a fashionable dancing master of the time. 

Hungary water was " a cure-all, as well as a restorative perfume." 
Patches, bits of black silk stuck on the face to enhance the beauty 
of the complexion. By the same hand, meaning by the same au- 
thor ; this expression, together with all the classic authors in wood 
is keenly satirical ; Addison was a great student of the classics. Find 
other illustrations of humor in the arrangement of the books or 
the uses to which they were put. 

4 The Spectator speaks! Why is this remarkable? As you read 
the essays, note the devices by which he avoids even the most ordi- 
nary forms of speech. 

6 Turtles, turtle doves. Taught to murmur, sarcasm. 
Gardens. In No. 414, the Spectator says : " Our trees rise in 

cones, globes, and pyramids. We see the marks of the scissors upon 
every plant and bush. ... I would rather look upon a tree in all 
its luxuriancy of boughs and branches, than when it is thus cut and 
trimmed into a mathematical figure." Lecky says : " The trees were 
habitually carved into cones, or pyramids, or globes, into smooth, 
even walls, or into fantastic groups of men and animals." Pope and 
Addison laid out their gardens on a new plan, and defended it with 
their pens. 

7 Even the motive for the preservation of her game partakes of 
the romantic. 

8 What in this paragraph might be construed into a criticism 
upon the author's time? 

General Questions. What is the object of this paper? By what 
means does the author interest his readers in this object? In papers 
No. 92 and 140 he presents to his readers some thoughts which grew 
out of the letters he received after this paper was published. 

VI. COVERLEY HALL. 

No. 106. Motto: " Here plenty shall flow for you, and pour out 
the riches of the honors of the country." Horace : I. Od. xvii. 14. 

1 Note the emphasis on the retiring habits of The Spectator. 

2 Pad, an easy-going horse. How does this paragraph show that 
" a kind master makes good servants " ? 

3 " When he is pleasant," when he jokes about them. 

5 Chaplain. Ashton, in Social Life in the Reign of Queen Anne, 
says : "A chaplain was a member of the household of every person 
of position, yet he had no social status." This " domestic chaplain 
was the butt of all satirists." Addison, in The Tatler, No. 255, says 



170 NOTES AND QUESTIONS. 

he knows not which " to censure, the insolence of power or the 
abjectness of dependence." Poetry of the period tells us that when 
the wine and tarts came upon the table, the chaplain withdrew. 
Again we are told that they often dug in the orchards and were 
compelled to shoe the horses, although, as Addison says, they " were 
men of considerable learning." The relations existing between Sir 
Roger and his chaplain were unusual. 

6 Latin and Greek; the common custom of quoting frequently 
from the classics indicates what in regard to the education of the 
day ? Note that the whole parish esteem the chaplain highly. 
Digested, arranged. 

7 Bishop of St. Asaph may refer either to William Beveridge, 
died 1708, or to his successor, Dr. William Fleetwood. Dr. Robert 
South, died 17 16, was a famous preacher who was a Tory and a 
High Churchman. Dr. John Tillotson, died 1694, was archbishop 
of Canterbury. 

8 Is the author serious here? 

General Questions. Enumerate the most pleasing characteristics 
of Sir Roger's home. Compare this chaplain with the vicar of 
Wakefield. What things seem to indicate that Sir Roger is to be 
regarded as a type of the country gentleman of his time? How does 
the humor in this paper contrast with that of the previous papers ? 
What do you infer as to the religious conditions of the age from 
this paper? 

VII. THE COVERLEY HOUSEHOLD. 

No. 107. Motto: " The Athenians erected a large statue to ^Esop, 
and placed him, though a slave, on a lasting pedestal, to show that 
the way of honor lies open indifferently to all." Phsedrus : Epilog. 
7, 2. 

1 The reception, etc. ; where has the Spectator made a similar 
statement? Servants fly; Ashton, Social Life in the Reign of Queen 
Anne, chap, vi, says : "As a rule they (the servants) were treated 
like dogs by their masters, and were caned mercilessly for trivial 
faults. . . . The large number of servants kept by the rich may be 
accounted for by the fact that the roads were so bad and so unsafe 
that servants were necessary as guards and assistants." How can one 
enjoy with economy? Note contrast in mean masters, worthy 
servants. 

2 Is this true wherever the relation of master and servant exists? 

3 This paragraph suggests Carlyle's Sartor Resartus. How much 
have clothes to do with a person's feeling of superiority or in- 
feriority ? 

4 Large fine, a sum of money distinct from the rent paid by a 
tenant to his lord. Blackstone says : "A tenement falls or alienates. 
A consequence of knight service was that of fines due the lord for 
every alienation, whenever the tenant had occasion to make over his 



VIII. WILL WIMBLE. 171 

land to another." Falls means, then, that the right to occupy 
certain lands or buildings terminates ; settlement, an instrument by 
which property is limited to several persons in succession. 

5 Note the characteristics of Sir Roger brought out here. 

6 Explain the last sentence. 

7 What advantage is gained by this reference to remote ages? 

8 How does this incident add to our interest in Sir Roger and 
his servants ? Looking at the butler, the Spectator does not speak. 
What feeling of delicacy prompted the dissatisfaction. 

General Questions. What ideals are presented in this paper? 
How does the author lift simple things out of the commonplace? 
Is there anything here that suggests a solution of the social prob- 
lems of to-day? 

VIII. WILL WIMBLE, A COVERLEY GUEST. 

No. 108. Motto: " Out of breath for nothing, doing nothing with 
much ado." Phaedrus : Fab. v, 2. 

The motto suggests what as to the character of Will Wimble? 
Look the word wimble up in the dictionary ; see if any of the mean- 
ings there given suggests a reason for selecting this name. 

1 Note the ambiguity in the use of pronouns. 

2 Some concern, hugely; are these to be taken seriously? Eton 
College, founded in 1441 by Henry VI. ; one of the famous English 
schools, situated on the Thames, near Windsor. 

3 Why extraordinary letter ? Explain born to no estate. The 
superintendent of game arranges the hunt. Very famous, satire. 

Tulip root \ at this time the culture of the tulip was a popular 
" fad," which had been introduced from Holland. 

The last accomplishment mentioned in this paragraph produces 
what effect upon the mind of the reader? How is this enhanced by 
the word darling? 

4 and 5 How do these develop the impression the author wishes to 
leave with us? 

6 The author drops satire and talks seriously ; where has he done 
this before? 

7 To what extent does this feeling still prevail in England? 
Citizens is here used of what class of people ? 

General Questions. Sum up the condition of affairs presented 
in this paper. Compare it with No. 174. In No. 21, the Spectator 
discusses the overcrowded condition of the three learned professions, 
divinity, law, and medicine, each of them overburdened with prac- 
titioners and filled with multitudes of ingenious gentlemen ; he also 
calls attention to the advantages of trade and commerce. 

Compare Will Wimble with Burchell in the Vicar of Wakefield. 



172 NOTES AND QUESTIONS. 



IX. THE COVERLEY ANCESTORS. 

No. 109. Motto: " Unconventionally wise." Horace: 2 Sat. ii, 3. 

1 How does the Spectator emphasize his habitual silence? Does 
this emphasize Sir Roger's bluntness? 

2 Yeomen of the guard, the bodyguard of the English sovereign, 
numbering one hundred. They still wear the costume of the time of 
Henry the Seventh, born 1456, died 1509. 

3 The Tilt-yard, an open space at Whitehall, the King's palace 
from Henry VIII to William III ; the Tilt-yard included part of the 
present Parade in St. James's Park, London. What was known as 
Jenny Man's ' Tilt-yard Coffee-house ' afterwards stood on the part 
of this ' yard,' " where the Paymaster General's office now stands." 

Why pardonable insolence? 

4 Note the seriousness with which " dress " is discussed. White- 
pot, a dish made of cream, sugar, currants, cinnamon, etc. 

4 In No. 127, the Spectator publishes a letter addressed to him, 
in which these " new petticoats " are attacked. 

5 Note the effect upon the paragraph of the expression, Misfor- 
tunes happen in all families. Enumerate the strange contradic- 
tions in the next heir, and what a significant honor (?) is ascribed 
to him. In 6 of No. 174 note how this debt is said to have been paid 
and this picture to have gained its place in the library. 

7 Knight of the shire, a gentleman who represents his county 
in Parliament, in distinction from the representative of a city or 
borough. 

To maintain integrity; how high was this man's estimate of life 
and its duties? 

8 Battle of Worcester, between the Roundheads and Royalists, 
Sept. 3, 1651. 

General Questions. Would the ideals set forth here arouse dis- 
cussion? Would this further the purpose of the paper? Select the 
passages in this essay which show Sir Roger's wisdom, and those 
that show his simplicity. 

X. THE COVERLEY GHOSTS. 

No. no. Motto: — 

"All things are full of horror and affright, 
And dreadful ev'n the silence of the night." 

Virgil : Aen. ii, 755. 

1 Note the religious feeling of the author. Young ravens. Psalms 
147: 9- 

2 Proper scenes, appropriate places. Enumerate the details that 
make the spot uncanny. 

3 Association of Ideas, Essay on the Human Understanding, ii, 
33, sec. 10. Prejudice of education, bent or bias of the mind. 






XII. SIR ROGER IN LOVE. 173 

5 How common is this custom? 

6 Titus Lucretius Carus, born in Italy about b. c. 95, left one 
work, De Rerum Natura, On the Nature of Things, a didactic poem 
in six books. Note the contradictions in this set of statements. 

7 Josephus, the most celebrated Jewish historian, born in Jeru- 
salem a. d. 37. This story is found in his Antiquities of the Jews. 
Glaphyra's father, Archelaus, was King of Cappadocia ; Herod the 
Great was her first husband ; Juba, King of Libya, her second hus- 
band ; Archelaus, brother of Herod, was her third husband. 

General Questions. What ideals are presented in this paper? 
Describe some place, with which you are familiar, that would make 
a good setting for a ghost story. 

XI. A COVERLEY SUNDAY. 

No. 112. Motto: — 

" First, in obedience to thy country's rites, 
Worship the immortal gods." Pythagoras. 

1 Seventh day; the Jewish Sabbath occurs on the seventh day 
of the week ; the Christian Sabbath on the first day. Polishing 
and civilizing; has history shown this to be true? Note the serious 
tone of the author ; how does this harmonize with what you have 
learned of his character, and with what he has said in an earlier 
paper about clergymen? How does what our public thinks of us 
affect what we are? 

2 Outdo, make more noise. 

3 Landlord to the whole congregation; what social condition 
does this bring out? Particularities, humors, peculiarities. Their, 
how is this different from modern usage ? 

4 Foils; these peculiarities brought out his good qualities, as 
the ladies' " patches " were supposed to bring out the fairness oi 
their complexions. 

6 Clerk's place; the principal duty of the clerk was to lead the 
responses ; recall Mr. Macey, the parish clerk, in Silas Marner. 

7 and 8 How true to human nature are the facts set forth here? 
General Questions. Review this number carefully, to gain a 

full appreciation of the charming seriousness of the first part, and 
the delightful absurdity of the situations presented in the latter part. 
What did the Spectator expect to accomplish by such an essay? 
What is satirized? How is the good upheld? What evidence is 
there of Addison's devoutness ? In connection with this read " The 
Widow and Her Son," Irving's Sketch Book. 

XII. SIR ROGER IN LOVE. 

No. 113. Motto: "Her image is imprinted in his heart." Vir- 
gil : Aen. iv, 4. 

1 How was this portion of the estate settled upon the widow? 



i 74 NOTES AND QUESTIONS. 

For the bequest made to her in his will, see No. 517. Finest hand; 
note the repetition of this phrase. Carve her name; As You Like It, 
Act III. 

3 Came into his estate, into the possession of his property. 
Assizes, see note on No. 2. Were his ambitions natural and laud- 
able ? Well dressed; the sheriff of the county had the right to 
appear upon state occasions in court dress. 

Murrain, an infectious disease that attacks cattle ; here used as 
an oath, equivalent, perhaps, to " confound her." Comment on the 
conduct of the widow in the court room. 

4 Desperate scholar . . . country gentlemen; Macaulay says, 
if the " heir of an estate . . . went to school and to college, he 
generally returned before he was twenty to the seclusion of the old 
hall, and there, unless his mind was happily constituted by nature, 
soon forgot his academical pursuits in rural business and pleasures." 

Best philosopher; note Addison's esteem for her. 

Sphinx; the most famous of the ancient Egyptian sphinxes is 
the colossal figure at the base of the great pyramid at Gizeh. This 
is an immense statue seventy feet high, cut out of native rock. It 
is doubtless the oldest idol of the human race. The most famous 
Grecian sphinx was in Thebes, in Bceotia. According to the legend, 
she propounded a riddle to all who passed by, and killed those who 
could not solve it. When (Edipus solved it, she slew herself. 

Tansy, a favorite dish of the period, consisting of eggs, cream, 
and sugar, flavored with the juices of endive, spinach, sorrel, and 
tansy, in addition to the usual seasoning of salt, nutmeg, and rose- 
water. 

The finest hand; is there point to this expression here? 

Martial, a Spanish epigrammatist, who lived in Rome about A. D. 
100. Dum tacet, even when silent he speaks of her. 

General Questions. How does the author dignify the passion of 
love ? Reproduce the author's picture of the society lady of the 
time. Note that again we have a type — an ideal for that time — 
a lady devoted to society, fond of admiration, ladylike, modest, pure. 
Why did the knight fail in his wooing? What ideals of the country 
gentleman are brought out? 

XIII. SIR ROGER'S ECONOMY. 

No. 114. Motto: "The shame of poverty and the dread of it." 
Horace : Epis. I, xviii, 24. 

1 Conversations, intercourse with others." What is the meaning 
of the sentence? 

Dipped, mortgaged. Usury now means excessive interest ; until 
a comparatively recent date the taking of money for the use of 
money was considered wrong, and was forbidden by the Church. 

Stomach. The stomach was believed to be the seat of pride, 
as the heart was of the feelings. 



XIV. LABOR AND EXERCISE. 175 

Preserves this canker? Was such false pride common? 
Libertine, uncontrolled. 

3 Laertes, the father of Ulysses, one of the Greeks in the Trojan 
War, was a rich man of royal birth ; Irus was a beggar in Ulysses' 
house. In Addison's time it was customary to use classical names 
to indicate classes of people, just as we use John Smith, or Jones. 

Save four shillings. This was the land tax in 171 1. In Eng- 
land, the holder of the property must pay the land tax on the whole 
estate, even if it was mortgaged. This land tax was made perpetual 
in the reign of George III. 

A fellow of yesterday, newly rich, without ancestral estates. 
Note the phrase, well born beggars. 

4 Irus's fear of poverty causes him to belittle himself in what 
way, in the eye of the Englishman ? 

5 Is the last statement in this paragraph sound doctrine? Recall 
the conduct of Sir Humphrey de Coverley, No. 109, 7, which is again 
referred to in 7 below. 

Mr. Cowley, Abraham Cowley the poet, born in London in 1618. 
The elegant author, Thomas Sprat, who wrote a life of Cowley 
which was published, with an edition of Cowley's works, in 1680. 
The passage referred to is from the paraphrase of one of Horace's 
odes, with which Cowley concludes his essay Of Goodness; it 
reads — 

" Hence ye profane. I hate ye all, 
Both the great vulgar and the small." 

8 Mechanical, moved by a power other than his own good sense. 

9 If e'er, etc. ; Mr. Cowley inserts these lines in his essay Of 
Goodness. 

Are the rules of conduct laid down in this essay practicable to- 
day? 

XIV. LABOR AND EXERCISE. 

No. 115. Motto: "Pray for a sound mind in a sound body." 
Juvenal : Sat. x, 356. 

1 May these two kinds of labor be characterized as " work " and 
" play " ? 

2 and 3 Contrast the Spectator's conception of the body with that 
of modern science. Is his way of stating the purposes of the various 
organs effective ? Does 3 introduce a good argument in favor of 
exercise ? 

3 Humors; see note on No. 2, 1. 

4 Spirits, animal spirits. Spleen, ill-humor, as the spleen was 
belieyed to be the seat of ill-humor. Vapors, " blues," fits of de- 
jection. Temper; this word was formerly used to indicate the mix- 
ture or relative proportion of the four humors. 

5 Do these arguments in favor of labor have real weight? 

6 This kind refers to the sports of the country gentleman ; 



176 NOTES AND QUESTIONS. 

hunting, horse-racing, bear-baiting, bull-baitings, and cock-fights. 
Killed him; killed whom? Geldings, horses. Half his dogs; did 
Addison approve of such hunts as this? 

Note for how much the " widow " is made responsible. 

7 Do modern physicians approve of riding on horseback? 

Dr. Sydenham, died 1689, a prominent physician, educated at 
Oxford. Medicina Gymnastica ; or a Treatise Concerning the Power 
of Exercise, by Francis Fuller (1704). 

10 Has he proved to us that his conclusions are justifiable? 

General Questions. Select the topic of each paragraph. Out- 
line the argument used in support of the author's position. 

XV. SIR ROGER AS A HUNTER. 

No. 116. Motto: "Loud calls Cithaeron and the hounds upon 
Taygetus." Virgil : Georg. iii, 43. 

How has the author prepared us for this essay? 

1 The Bastille, a prison in Paris which was destroyed at the 
breaking out of the French Revolution, July 14, 1789. The key 
of the Bastille was presented to George Washington by Lafayette, 
and may now be seen among the relics at Mount Vernon. 

2 Note Addison's knowledge of country sports. In modern 
usage vermin is not applied to animals so large as foxes. Staked, 
impaled while " taking " a fence. 

3 Beagle, a small hound tised for hunting hares. Stop-hounds: 
" We infer from Blaine's Rural Sports that when one of these 
hounds found the scent he gave notice of his good fortune by 
deliberately squatting, to impart more effect to his deep tones, and 
to get wind for a fresh start." — Wills. 

Complete concert; reference is here made to the custom of se- 
lecting hounds not only for their fleetness, but for the harmony 
of their voices. Mr. Morley says: "Henry II. (1154-1158) in his 
breeding of hounds is said to have been careful not only that they 
should be fleet, but ' well-tongued and sonorous.' " 

What was the custom in the time of Elizabeth? 
" Midsummer Night's Dream," Act IV., i. 

Flewed, having long chaps, such as a deep-mouthed hound has. 
Sanded, of a sandy color. 

Dew-lapped; the dew-lap is the pendulous skin under the neck, 
such as is seen in cattle. 

Each under each, like the notes in the music scale. 

Cry, a pack of hounds. 

A kind inquiry; where have we seen Sir Roger in this char- 
acter before? 

5 To beat, to range over a portion of the country striking the 
bushes to rouse the game. Furze brake, a thicket of thorny ever- 
green shrubs. 



XVI. THE COVERLEY WITCH. 177 

By extending my arm; where has he spoken (?) before by ges- 
ticulating ? 

6 What is gained by having the Spectator withdraw to a rising 
ground? 

Hound of reputation; note the sagacity of the dogs. Opened, 
barked on scent or view of the game. 

7 Been put up again; have been started again. 

Most lively pleasure; in No. 583, the Spectator says: "Though 
exercise of this kind, when indulged with moderation, may have 
a good influence on the mind and body, the country affords many 
other amusements of a more noble kind." 

Huntsman . . . threw down his pole. " The hunting field was 
a thoroughly neighborly gathering . . . the runs engendered a 
neighborly feeling, and gave legitimate occupation to a people whose 
brains were not addled with too much reading. . . . Only the gen- 
tlemen are represented as being on horseback, the huntsmen having 
leaping poles. This was better for them than being mounted, for 
the country was nothing like as cultivated as now, and perfectly 
undrained, so that they could go straighter on foot, and with these 
poles leaps could be taken that no horseman would attempt." — 
Ashton. 

Good nature . . . murder; what do you think of the Squire's 
kind-heartedness ? 

8 Monsieur Pascal, died 1662, a celebrated French writer, much 
esteemed for his intellect. 

What estimate is to be put upon Pascal's remarks? 

g Is this meant seriously? 

10 Note the didactic tone of this poetry of Dryden's. It is in 
the style popular in Queen Anne's day. 

General Questions. Does this picture of Sir Roger presented by 
Budgell differ in any respect from those given by Addison and 
Steele in earlier papers? What is the object of this paper? Does 
the reader get any impression of the excitement of the hunt ? What 
are some of the especially good points in the description? 

XVI. THE COVERLEY WITCH. 

No. 117. Motto: "Their visions are of their own making." 
Virgil : Ec. viii, 108. 

" When this essay was written, charges were being laid against 
an old woman, Jane Wenham, of Walkerne, a little village north df 
Hertford, which led to her trial for witchcraft at the assizes held 
in the following year, 17 12, when she was found guilty; and be- 
came memorable as the last person who in this country was con- 
demned to capital punishment for that impossible offence." — Mor- 
ley's note. He adds that " upon the testimony of sixteen witnesses " 
this woman was found guilty of " conversing with the devil in the 
form of a cat." 



178 NOTES AND QUESTIONS. 

i Is Addison satirical in the expression hovering faith? 

2 Find the inconsistency in this paragraph. 

3 Thomas Otway, an English dramatist, born 1651. This quo- 
tation is from The Orphan. 

4 Note the significance given to every action of Moll White. 

5 Tabby cat; see note above. Switches and broomsticks 
were believed to be the carriages on which witches rode on their 
nightly expeditions. Black witches could do nothing but evil ; 
white witches could do no real harm ; grey witches could do both 
good and evil. Lapland was believed to be overrun with witches. 

7 Spit pins; one of the common charges laid against witches was 
that they cause other people to spit pins and nails ; or that they 
caused the pins to pass from the pincushion to the mouths of their 
victims. Tossing into the pond; one way of testing a woman ac- 
cused of witchcraft was to cast her into a pond ; if she floated she 
was a witch. 

8 Does this statement seem consistent with the Spectator's opin- 
ion stated in 1 ? See also 6. 

g Note the pathos of this paragraph : " What is so ridiculous 
as old age " ? — and poverty ? 

" The true source from which witchcraft springs is Poverty, Age, 
and Ignorance ; it is impossible for a woman to pass for a witch, 
unless she is very poor, very old, and lives in a neighborhood where 
the people are void of common sense." Goody Two Shoes, chap. vi. 

General Questions. What would be the effect of such a paper 
as this? What was the condition of affairs in America at this 
time concerning witchcraft? 

XVII. A COVERLEY PASTORAL. 

No. 118. Motto: "Fast sticks the deadly arrow in his side." 
Virgil : Aen. iv, 73. 

Study this paper for the light it throws upon Sir Roger's char- 
acter. 

1 Note Steele's appreciation of Nature. 

4 Is the gamekeeper's lovemaking formal? Suggest changes in 
some of the phrases. 

6 Is Sir Roger's estimate of the influence of his love upon his 
character a just one? 

General Questions. What was the purpose of this paper? Note 
the simple yet dignified tone in which the Squire always speaks of 
his love for the widow, and the deep respect with which he regards 
her. 

XVIII. SIR ROGER AT THE ASSIZES. 

No. 122. Motto: "A pleasant companion upon the road is as 
good as a coach." Publius Syrus. 



XVIII. SIR ROGER AT THE ASSIZES. 179 

Assizes; see note on No. 2. 

1 What is the value of these rules of conduct? 

3 Game Act; see note on No. 2. 

Petty jury, or petit jury, a body of twelve men impaneled 
to try cases in court ; its functions are distinct from those of the 
grand jury, which may consist of a larger number of men. What 
is satirized in the sentence beginning he knocks down? Why does 
Sir Roger mention that his neighbor shoots flying? 

4 Cast, to condemn in a lawsuit ; willow tree; note the realistic 
effect obtained by mentioning this suit, although we know nothing 
further about it. 

5 Much might be said; Sir Roger's tact? 

6 Good weather; why an important matter? See note on No. 
116. 

7 The speech; is this opinion in harmony with the impression 
formed of Sir Roger's character up to this time? 

8 Note the awe with which the judge was regarded. 

9 In Spectator, No. 28, Addison publishes a letter purporting 
to be from a " projector " who thinks there should be " a superin- 
tendent of all such figures and devices " as are used for signs. The 
correspondent says : — 

" Our streets are filled with blue boars, black swans, and red 
lions ; not to mention flying pigs and hogs in armour, with many 
other creatures more extraordinary than any in the deserts of 
Afric. 

'" I would forbid that creatures of jarring and incongruous na- 
tures should be joined together in the same sign; such as the bull 
and the neat's tongue, the dog and the gridiron. The fox and the 
goose may be supposed to have met, but what has the fox and the 
seven stars to do together? And when did the lamb and dolphin 
ever meet, except upon a sign-post? As for the cat and fiddle, 
there is a conceit in it ; and therefore I do not intend that any 
thing I have here said should affect it." 

Before reading was a popular acquirement, signs were absolutely 
necessary for the unlearned. 

In Addison's first contribution to The Tatler, he tells of a man 
who wandered about London for a whole day, because he had mis- 
taken the word Bear for Boar. 

Did the innkeeper know why Sir Roger wanted the sign altered? 
Much might be said; the Spectator speaks! Note the fineness of 
the humor. 

10 Why does he speak of it as a pleasant day? 

General Questions. Note how Sir Roger presents the character- 
istics of the two men whom they overtook. What traits of Sir 
Roger's character are developed in this essay? In what respects 
is this paper like the modern novel? 



NOTES ANB QUESTIONS. 



XIX. MISCHIEFS OF PARTY SPIRIT. 

No. 125. Motto: " Do not my boys accustom yourselves to 
great conflicts, nor turn your sturdy strength against the vitals of 
your country." Virgil : Aen. vi, 832. 

During the reign of Queen Anne, party spirit ran very high; 
In 1703, Swift had declared that " even the cats and dogs were in- 
fected with Whig and Tory animosity." In Spectator, No. 81, Addi- 
son gives a description of the " party patches " which the ladies 
wore to the theaters and the puppet shows. In No. 507, he attacks 
what he calls " party lying ; " he says that " a man is looked upon 
as bereft of common sense, that gives credit to relations (i. e. stories) 
by party writers." No. 629 shows that the custom of demanding 
an official position as a reward for manifesting party spirit, often 
in very gentlemanly ways, had already become a great annoyance. 
The neutral policy of The Spectator is presented in No. 16. 

1 Roundheads, the partisans of the Commonwealth ; Cavaliers, 
the partisans of the King in the time of the Commonwealth. St. 
Anne's Lane; Mr. Aitken says, " Probably St. Anne's Lane, Great 
Peter Street, Westminster." 

4 Plutarch, born a. d. 50 ; his Lives of noted Greeks and Ro- 
mans, and his Morals are the best known of his works. That great 
rule, Luke vi, 27-29. 

5 Two different mediums, air and water ; place a pencil in water 
and make the test. 

7 The Guelphs were the party in Italy that sided with the Pope 
in the struggle with the German Emperors ; the Ghibellines were 
the imperial party or faction. League, this was the Catholic League 
(1576—1593) formed by the Duke of Guise, in the sixteenth century, 
whose object was to prevent the accession of Henry IV. of France, 
who was of the reformed religion. 

General Questions. Go through this paper carefully selecting 
those points which are applicable to the present political parties 
in the United States. Re-write the paper with this application in 
mind. Is non-partisanship in politics desirable ? Answer Addison's 
arguments in favor of it. 

XX. PARTY SPIRIT. 

No. 126. Motto: " Trojan or Rutulian, he is the same to me." 
Virgil : Aen. x, 108. 

2 What is Addison's object in this paragraph? 

5 Diodorus Siculus, a Greek historian who lived during the 
times of Julius and Augustus Caesar. How does this story give 
point to the satire? 

8 What is the humor of the situation here? Is the impression 
of Sir Roger given here in harmony with the general view that has 
been given in earlier papers ? 



XXI. GYPSIES AT COVERLEY. % 181 

9 and 10 What is gained by these two paragraphs? 

ii Do you recall any wars in England or America that might 
serve to prove the truth of the statements made here? 

Select the humorous passages in this essay, and show in what 
the humor consists. 

XXL GYPSIES AT COVERLEY. 

No. 130. Motto: "And it is always their delight to heap up 
fresh booty, and to live by plunder." Virgil : Aen. vii, 748. 

1 Not having his clerk; what does this recall in regard to 
the education of the country squire ? 

2 Cassandra, daughter of Priam, King of Troy, whose prophe- 
cies were never believed though they always came true. Line oi 
life, the long line curving around the thumb from which the length 
of life is told ; other lines in the palms of the hands have other 
meanings in palmistry. Note the humor of the situation in this 
and the next paragraph. 

5_8 What does the essay gain by this story ? In what light 
does this essay show Sir Roger ? 

XXII. THE SPECTATOR SUMMONED TO LONDON. 

No. 131. Motto: "Once more, ye woods, adieu." Virgil: Eel. 
x, 63. 

1 Why is this a suitable introduction? 

2 Can spring game, can start it, so that it rises from cover. 
Foil the scent; when there are different kinds of game, the hounds 
cannot follow the scent of one particular animal. Is there any 
reference here to the Spectator's desire to conceal the origin of 
all his characters, so that nothing may be regarded as personal? 

Cities. A city, in English law, is a town which is or has been 
the see of a bishop. Westminster had been a cathedral diocese in 
the early part of the sixteenth century, and did not lose its privi- 
lege when the bishopric was suppressed. 

3. Why did his habits arouse such curiosity? 

4 Cunning man, a clairvoyant. White Witch, a mischievous 
but not harmful witch. 

5 Jesuit, a member of the society of Jesus, a Catholic religious 
order established about 1534. After the Revolution of 1688, the 
Whigs especially were always suspicious that the Tories and the 
Jesuits wished to restore the exiled Stuarts to the throne of Eng- 
land. 

6 Some discarded Whig; Addison a Whig had lost his office as 
Secretary to Ireland in 1710 with the fall of the Whig ministry. 

8 How can one be alone in a crowd ? 

General Questions. Was Addison too thoroughly " city bred " 
to appreciate country lite ? Has he drawn these country people 
" true to life " ? How does this paper fit into the purpose of the 
series ? 



1 82 NOTES AND QUESTIONS. 



XXIII. THE COACH TO LONDON. 

No. 132. Motto: " He who fails to see what the occasion de- 
mands, or who talks too much, or is boastful, or has not the proper 
regard for the company he is in, — such a man is called impertin- 
ent." — Cicero : De Orat. ii, 4. 

1 What characteristics of a country town are brought out here? 
Chamberlin, an upper servant in an inn. Mrs., a title of courtesy, 

formerly given in England to unmarried ladies. Ephraim was a 
name commonly applied to the Quakers. 

2 Half pike, a sharp-pointed weapon consisting of a shaft with 
an iron head. This suggests the dangers of traveling in Queen 
Anne's time. It is said that every highway of importance was 
marked by gibbets ; that robberies and murder were so common 
that it was customary to make one's will before undertaking a 
journey. 

Equipage, used of service of any kind ; here used somewhat 
ironically of the one servant of the captain. 

8 Is the Spectator preaching to his readers through Ephraim? 

General Questions. Comment upon the skill with which the 
author has presented these characters. Do they serve the purpose 
of minor characters in a novel ? 

XXIV. SIR ROGER AND SIR ANDREW FREEPORT. 

No. 174. Motto:" These things I recall, and that Thyrsus though 
defeated continued to argue." Virgil : Eel. vii, 69. 

1 Roman fable, a story which was told, so it is said, by the 
consul Agrippa, to illustrate the contentions between the plebeians 
or common people and the patricians. Give other illustrations of 
this truth. 

Landed man . . . trader. " Nature seems to have taken care to dis- 
seminate her blessings among the different regions of the world, 
with an eye to this mutual intercourse and traffic among mankind, 
that the natives of the several parts of the globe might have a 
kind of dependence upon one another, and be united together by 
their common interests. . . . The single dress of a woman is often 
the product of a hundred climates. . . . For these reasons there 
are no more useful members in a commonwealth than merchants ; 
. . . they find work for the poor. . . . My friend Sir Andrew calls 
the vineyards of France our gardens ; the spice islands our hotbeds ; 
the Persians our silk weavers ; and the Chinese our potters." 
Spectator, No. 69. 

2 Carthaginian faith; the Carthaginians were a trading people 
in Northern Africa whom the Romans finally conquered in b. c. 
146. The Romans charged them with treachery. 

What can there be, etc.; why is Sir Roger made to say this? 

3 Taking notice, remarking. Is Captain Sentry's statement true ? 



XXV. SIR ROGER IN LONDON. 183 

4 Consistent suggests what as to the management of estates ? 
Gives; see quotation from No. 69. Note the force of the Dutch 

proverb. 

5 Numbers; comment on the truthfulness of this statement. 
Compare these statements with the " useful though ordinary quali- 
fications of Will Wimble " and discover why he would have made 
a good trader. 

Assurance, now used in England of life insurance only, while 
insurance is used of all other risks. 

Throws down no man's enclosure. " From the days of Eliza- 
beth to George III., standing corn — the mere bread of the people — 
was not allowed to interfere with the squirearchy in their devotion 
to the chase. . . . The farmers complained piteously of the losses 
they suffered, but it was not until the farmer's friend, George 
III. came to power, that the abuse was abolished." — Wills. 

6 Conduct of his ancestors; refer to No. 109. Trade. " It 
was noticed as a remarkable sign of the democratic spirit that fol- 
lowed the Commonwealth, that country gentlemen in England had 
begun to bind their sons as apprentices to merchants, and also 
about the same time the desire to obtain large portions in mar- 
riage led to alliances between the aristocracy and the merchants." 
— Lecky's History of England in the XVIII Century, vol. i, chap.ii. 

General Questions. Select the satirical passages in this essay. 
Make a careful outline of the arguments used by Sir Andrew. 
Outline such an answer as you think Sir Roger would have made. 
Why should it seem at all remarkable that Steele wrote this paper? 
Other ideas of the Spectator on trade are to be found in No. 232. 

XXV. SIR ROGER IN LONDON. 

No. 269. Motto: "Simplicity — in our age most rare." Ovid: 
Ars. Am. i, 241. 

1 Gray's Inn Walks; see note on No. 1. 

Prince Eugene, or Frangois Eugene de Savoy, born in Paris 
in 1663, was one of the generals who shared with Marlborough the 
victories of Oudenarde, 1708, and Malplaquet, 1709. The object 
of this visit to England in 171 1 was to induce the Queen to restore 
Marlborough to the command from which he had just been dis- 
missed. At first the Tories received him with great enthusiasm, but 
when they learned his mission they dropped him. His effort was 
unsuccessful. 

2 Eugenio sounds more foreign. 

Scanderbeg, from Alexander meaning chief or hero, and Bey 
or Beg. Alexander is sometimes written Iskander. He was a chief 
of the Albanians who became a Christian and was known as George 
Castriot. See Longfellow's " Spanish Jew's Tale " in Tales of a 
Wayside Inn, In No. 316, he is spoken of as " prince of Epirus." 



184 NOTES AND QUESTIONS. 

5 Made a sermon; see No. 106, 7. Thirty marks, about £20; 
money had a much greater purchasing power in those days. 

6 Tobacco Stopper, a small plug used to press the tobacco down 
in the pipe, as it was smoked. 

7 In what does the humor in this consist? 

8 It will be interesting to read the " Christmas " sketches in 
Irving's Sketch Book. The Christmas festival began on the even- 
ing of the twenty-fourth of December and lasted till Twelfth Night, 
the evening of Epiphany. John Ashton's A Right Merrie Christ- 
mas ..gives an exhaustive account of Christmas. Charles I. is said 
to have given an order directing noblemen, bishops, and others, 
" to resort to their several counties where they usually reside, and 
there keep their habitations and hospitality." " In Christmas holi- 
days the tables were all spread from the first to the last ; sirloins 
of beef, the mince pies, the plum porridge, the capons, geese, tur- 
keys, plum puddings were all brought upon the board." These 
rich articles of diet were much disapproved by the Puritans. 

Hog's puddings, sausages. Small beer, weak beer. 

9 Act of Parliament; the Act of Occasional Conformity passed 
in 1 7 10; this bill provided that in order to hold civil offices, the 
Moderate Dissenters must be able to testify that they had not 
attended a Non-Conformist conventicle for a year. — Lecky. 

10 Pope's Procession; this took place on November 17 annually, 
in commemoration of the accession of Queen Elizabeth. Usually 
it was the occasion for much party tumult, and this one in 1712 was 
especially riotous. The Tory government interfered and stopped 
the procession. See Swift's Journal to Stella, Letter 35. 

What had given the Spectator the reputation of being a vary 
man? 

11 Baker's Chronicle; The Chronicle of the Kings of England 
from the time of the Romans' Government unto the death of King 
James, by Sir Richard Baker. It was published in 1691. 

12 Squire's, a coffee-house near Gray's Inn, much frequented 
by men of law. Supplement, a newspaper of the day. 

XXVI. SIR ROGER IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 

No. 329. Motto: " It yet remains for us to go whither Numa 
went, and Ancus ; that is, to the grave." Horace : Epod. xvii, 24. 

Westminster Abbey, one of the most famous churches of Lon- 
don, situated west of the Thames near the Houses of Parliament. 
The land on which it stands was in early times an island surrounded 
by the Thames. When Christianity was first introduced into Britain, 
a monastery was founded here. About 1060 under Edward the 
Confessor, an abbey was raised on the ruins of the old building. 
William the Conqueror was crowned here in 1066. Henry III. pulled 
down the greater part of it, and built and dedicated a chapel to the 
Virgin Mary at the east end ; Edward I. further enlarged the abbey. 



XXVI. SIR ROGER IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 185 

Henry VII. built the chapel known by his name, which is remark- 
able for the skill of the architect and the sculptor displayed ; 
this chapel was so highly esteemed that only royalty, it was decreed, 
should be buried within its walls. During the reign of William 
and Mary, the Abbey was thoroughly repaired and the towers at 
the western entrance added under the direction of Sir Christopher 
Wren ; these, however, are not in harmony architecturally with the 
rest of the building. The abbey is 513 feet long, 203 feet wide 
at the transept, 102 feet wide at the nave, and the height of the west 
towers is 225 feet. 

In the Chapel of Edward the Confessor is the Coronation Chair, 
under which is placed the celebrated stone brought from Scone in 
Scotland, by Edward I. in 1297. On this stone the Scottish kings 
were formerly crowned. A myth says that this stone was part of the 
rock on which Jacob slept at Bethel. A second coronation chair 
stands near this, which was first used by Mary, Queen of William 
III. 

The Poets' Corner in the south transept is the resting place 
of many noted men, among whom are Chaucer, Spenser, Dryden, 
Garrick, Dickens, and Tennyson ; memorials to many others are also 
to be found here. The other tombs in Westminster form no small 
part of its interest to the visitor. Mr. Ashton says in Chap. XX. of 
his Social Life in the Reign of Queen Anne, that for the country 
visitor to London in the eighteenth century, the three great sights 
were the " lions at the Tower, the tombs in Westminster Abbey, 
and the poor mad folk in Bedlam." The student should read 
Irving's Sketch Book, " Westminster Abbey," and Spectator, No. 26. 

2 Widow Trueby's water, the strong waters of the times con- 
sisted chiefly of distilled spirits. 

Dantzic, or Danzig, a town in northern Germany, was visited 
in 1709 by a plague. Epidemics were common all over Europe 
during the early years of the century, the greatest scourge being 
smallpox. 

3 Being engaged, deeply interested. 

6 Sir Cloudesley Shovel, a famous English Admiral who rose 
from cabin boy; born 1650, wrecked off the Scilly Isles in 1707. 
In No. 26, the Spectator says that this tomb " has very often given 
me great offense. Instead of the brave, rough English Admiral 
which was the distinguishing character of that plain, gallant man, 
he is represented on his tomb by the figure of a beau dressed in 
a long periwig, and reposing himself upon velvet cushions under 
a panoply of state. The inscription . . . instead of celebrating 
the many remarkable actions he had performed in the service of 
his country acquaints us only with the manner of his death, in 
which it was impossible for him to reap any honor." 

Dr. Busby, born 1606, died 1695 ; for fifty-five years he was the 
head-master of Westminster School ; he could teach as well as whip. 



186 NOTES AND QUESTIONS. 

7 Little chapel on the right hand, St. Edmund's chapel, dedi- 
cated to a saint who was Archbishop of Canterbury in the reign of 
Henry III. Cecil; William Cecil, Lord Burleigh, born 1520, died 
1598, the most famous statesman of Elizabeth's reign and her Sec- 
retary of State ; his wife and daughter are buried here. 

The martyr was Elizabeth, youngest daughter of Lord John 
Russell ; the monument is in St. Edmund's Chapel. The position of 
the figure " gave rise to the foolish story that she bled to death 
from the prick of a needle." What is there humorous in this para- 
graph ? 

8 The coronation chairs, see above; forfeit would indicate what 
custom? Trepanned, caught. 

9 Edward the Third's sword has been called " the monumental 
sword that conquered France." " It is seven feet long, weighs 
eighteen pounds, and with his shield is near his tomb." 

10 Evil; scofula was called the " King's Evil " because from the 
reign of Edward the Confessor to that of Queen Anne, the notion 
prevailed that the disease might be cured by the royal touch. Dr. 
Johnson as a child was " touched " by Queen Anne, and is said to 
have been the last person so treated. 

;i Without a head; " The effigy of Henry V., which was or- 
iginally covered with silver ; the head is said to have been cast of 
silver ; but this, Camden says, ' was gone when he wrote his Britan- 
nica, in the reign of Elizabeth.' " 

14 Norfolk Buildings, in Norfolk Street, Strand. 

General Questions. Compare this paper with No. 26 and with 
Irving's sketch on " Westminster Abbey," and show the limitations 
of Sir Roger. Note how Irving gains in power by his method of 
description ; enumerate some of the devices used by Irving and by 
Addison to produce upon their readers the impressions produced 
upon them by the sights and associations in Westminster. 

XXVII. SIR ROGER AT THE PLAY. 

No. 335. Motto: " I will bid the trained actor look around 
(him) for models of life and customs, and thence get truth of 
speech" (living voices). Horace: Ars Poet. 327. 

1 The " Committee," by Sir Robert Howard was very popular 
after the Restoration on account of its political character ; it ridi- 
culed the Puritans. The new tragedy was The Distressed Mother, 
by Ambrose Phillips, an adaptation of Racine's Andromaque. See 
Spectators 290 and 338. Hector, son of Priam, King of Troy, was 
killed in the Trojan War ; his wife Andromache and his infant son 
Astyanax survived him. Pyrrhus's father Achilles was the slayer 
of Hector. Pyrrhus had promised Andromache that if she would 
become his wife, Astyanax should be proclaimed king of the Tro- 
jans. She consents to do so, planning to take her own life as 
soon as the marriage ceremony is performed. But Hermione, the 



XXVII. SIR ROGER AT THE PLAY. 187 

betrothed of Pyrrhus, induces her brother Orestes to stir the Greeks 
up against him, and just as he has proclaimed Astyanax king, he 
is killed. Hermione takes her own life, and Orestes is pursued 
by the furies : thus the " distressed mother " is freed from her 
enemies. 

Mohocks. The Spectator in No. 324 and 347 gives some account 
of these people : " A set of men (if you will allow them a place 
in that species of being) have lately erected themselves into a 
nocturnal fraternity under the title of the Mohock Club, a name 
borrowed, it seems, from a sort of cannibal in India, who subsist 
by plundering and devouring all nations about them. The avowed 
design of their institution is mischief, and upon this foundation 
all their rules and orders are framed. ... In order to exert this 
principle in its full strength and perfection, they take care to 
drink themselves to a pitch that is beyond the possibility of attend- 
ing any motions of reason and humanity ; then make a grand sally 
and attack all that are so unfortunate as to walk the streets 
through which they patrol." 

In No. 347 in a letter purporting to be from the chief of the 
Mohocks occurs the following : " We do hereby earnestly pray 
and exhort all husbands, fathers, housekeepers, and masters of 
families in either of the aforesaid cities (Westminster and London) 
not only to repair themselves to their respective habitations at early 
and seasonable hours ; but also to keep their wives and daughters, 
sons, servants, and apprentices from appearing in the streets at those 
times and seasons, which may expose them to a military discipline 
as it is practiced by our good subjects the Mohocks; and we do 
further promise on our imperial word, that as soon as the reforma- 
tion aforesaid shall be brought about, we will forthwith cause all 
hostilities to cease." Historians tell us that these men were of 
high rank ; that matrons were enclosed in barrels and rolled down 
Snow Hill ; maid servants were waylaid and beaten and their faces 
cut; even the watchmen were attacked and their noses slit. Swift's 
Journal to Stella, March, 171 1, and Gay's Trivia contain similar 
accounts of the Mohocks. Little wonder then that Sir Roger 
wished to be well prepared. 

Fleet Street extends eastward from The Temple ; this same 
street is known as The Strand, west of The Temple toward West- 
minister. Charles the Second, 1660-1685. One of the devices of 
the Mohocks was to treat a man as if he were being hunted as an 
animal. Norfolk Street, west of The Temple extending from The 
Strand to the river. Four o'clock; at what time did the plays 
begin? See No. 2. 

2. Steenkirk, 1692, the English under William III. were de- 
feated by the French under Marshal Luxembourg. Oaken plants, 
cudgels. 

The pitjAshton, Social Life in the Reign of Queen Anne, Chap. 



1 88 NOTES AND QUESTIONS. 

XXV. gives an account of the theaters at this time; he quotes from 
Mission a description of Drury Lane as follows : " The pit is an 
amphitheater, filled with Benches without back boards, and adorned 
and covered with green cloth. Men of quality, particularly the 
younger sort, some ladies of reputation and virtue and abundance 
(of women of low repute) sit altogether in this place, higgledy, 
piggledy, chatter, toy, play, hear, hear not. Farther up against 
the wall, under the first gallery, and just opposite to the stage, 
rises another amphitheater, which is taken up by persons of the 
best quality, among whom are generally very few men. The gal- 
leries, whereof there are only two rows, are filled with none but 
ordinary people, particularly the upper one." 

King of France, Louis XIV. 

3 Dramatic rules, the three unities of time, place, and action 
followed in the ancient Greek drama; followed at this time by the 
French dramatic writers, whom the English imitated. 

Critic; many numbers of The Spectator contains critical essays, 
— the papers on Milton are especially interesting ; they were issued 
on Saturdays from January 5, 1812, to May 3, 1812. 

6 Pylades, the friend and companion of Orestes ; the old fellow 
in whiskers, Phoenix, counsellor to Pyrrhus. Smoke, ridiculed. In 
his madness, under the influence of or pursued by the furies. 

General Questions. The theater in the reign of Queen Anne 
compared with the theater in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. What 
is there sympathetic in this presentation of Sir Roger? Note how 
skillfully " little things " are used to present his character from 
different points of view. 

XXVIII. SIR ROGER AND WILL HONEYCOMB. 

No. 359. Motto: " The savage lioness pursues the wolf, the wolf 
in turn the goat ; the wanton goat preys on the flowering trefoil." 
Virgil : Eel. ii, 63. 

1 To lay, to bet. 

2 Turned of threescore, more than threescore. 

3 Put, pronounced put, used in contempt. 

4 Lyon's Inn, one of the smaller law societies, called inns of 
chancery. 

5 Squeezed her by the hand; who was the first to make love 
in this way? (No. 109.) 

9 Book considered last Saturday, Book X., Paradise Lost, an- 
alyzed in Spectator, No. 357. 

General Questions. What is the object of this paper? Make 
a careful statement of the differences in the characters of Sir Roger 
and Will Honeycomb. No. 530 recounts the marriage of Will 
Honeycomb. Is there any incongruity between Will's assumption 
of knowledge of the "female world" and his success (?) in "his 
particular province ? " 



XXIX. SIR ROGER AT VAUXHALL. 189 



XXIX. SIR ROGER AT VAUXHALL. 

No. 383. Motto: " By crimes their gardens are maintained." 
Juvenal : Sat. i, 75. 

Dobson in his Eighteenth Century Vignettes says of Old Vaux- 
hall gardens: "In 1750 the customary approach to this earthly 
paradise was still along that silent highway of the Thames over 
which, nearly forty years before, Sir Roger de Coverley and Mr. 
Spectator had been rowed by the wooden-legged waterman who had 
fought at La Hogue. There was, indeed, a bridge built or being 
built at Westminster ; but more than a half century was to elapse 
before there was another at Vauxhall. . . . From Whitehall stairs, 
tne favorite starting place, the cost of a pair of oars was sixpence ; 
from The Temple eight. For sculls you paid no more than half." 
At Vauxhall stairs was a " crush of wherries and a ' confusion of 
tongues.' A few steps would bring you to a gate or wicket where 
you showed your ticket or paid your shilling." 

The garden is described as " many lighted. The tall elms and 
sycamores with the colored lamps braced to the tree trunks, or 
twinkling through the leaves, the long ranges of alcoves with their 
inviting supper tables, the brightly shining temples and pavilions, 
the fading vistas and the ever-changing groups of pleasure seekers, 
must have combined to form a whole which fully justified 
the enthusiasm of the contemporaries, even if it did not, in the 
florid language of the old guide books, exactly ' furnish the pen of 
a sublime and poetic genius with inexhaustible scenes of luxuriant 
fancy.' Johnson although more partial to Ranelagh, Boswell, and 
Goldsmith, frequented the supper room. Many famous female singers 
of the eighteenth century sang there." One of the most famous 
walks was known as the " dark walk " or the Druid's or Lover's 
walk. The gardens were closed in 1859. 

Vauxhall is pronounced Vawkshall ; the name has been traced to 
a family bearing the name of Vaux who held an estate here in the 
days of Elizabeth. Goldsmith, Fielding, Smollett, Thackeray, and 
Miss Burney introduce these gardens in their work ; so does Walpole 
in his letters and Hogarth in his paintings. They are sometimes 
called Spring Garden, or Foxhall. 

2 Temple Stairs, a landing place across two stone arches well 
into the Thames, within the Temple Grounds. 

3 La Hogue, 1692, the English and Dutch fleets defeated the 
French fleet. London Bridge, built 11 76 and 1209, was for many 
centuries the only bridge across the Thames ; the present bridge 
was constructed in 183 1. 

4 Temple Bar, a London gateway formerly dividing Fleet Street 
from the Strand ; on this side would be on the Strand side toward 
Westminster. 

Fifty new churches; in 171 1 a resolution was passed by the 



i 9 o NOTES AND QUESTIONS. 

House of Commons for the erection of fifty new churches in the 
suburbs of London. 

7 Mahometan Paradise, the heaven of the Koran is a garden 
filled with everything to gratify the senses. 

8 Burton-on-Trent, a town in East Staffordshire and South 
Derbyshire, was even in Addison's day famous for its ale. Hung 
beef, dried beef. 

General Questions. What is Sir Roger's attitude toward chil- 
dren? toward those injured in his country's service? 

Beginning with The Spectator, No. 446, the newspaper tax went 
into effect. The Act of Parliament provided " that there shall be 
raised, levied, collected, and paid. ... 

" For every such pamphlet or paper contained in a half sheet or 
any lesser paper so printed, the sum of one half penny." In con- 
sequence of this, with No. 446, published August 1, 1712, the price 
of The Spectator was raised one penny, notwithstanding the fact 
that the price of other papers had been increased only the amount of 
the tax. In No. 488, Addison vindicates, in his very best style, the 
policy of the paper in this respect. 

XXX. SIR ROGER'S DEATH. 

No. 517. Motto: Alas for piety, and early faith. Virgil: Aen. 
vi, 878. 

2 Quarter sessions; see notes on Squire in No. 2. 

4 Act of Uniformity; the third act of uniformity was passed 
in 1662. Among other provisions, it decreed that all ministers in 
all churches in England and Wales should declare their assent to the 
Book of Common Prayer, and read the morning and evening prayers 
therein. 

A letter from Captain Sentry published in No. 544 of The Spec- 
tator, contains the following : " I cannot reflect upon Sir Roger's 
character, but I am confirmed in the truth which I have, I think, 
heard spoken at the club; to wit, that a man of warm and well- 
disposed heart, with a very small capacity, is highly superior, in 
human society, to him who, with the greatest talents, is cold and 
languid in his affections." 

General Questions. Why does Addison tell us of the death of 
Sir Roger before this series of papers closed? What makes Sir 
Roger seem real to the readers of the papers? 

XXXI. THE VISION OF MIRZA 

No. 159. Motto: — 

" The cloud, which, intercepting the clear light, 
Hangs o'er thy eyes, and blunts thy mortal sight, 
I will remove — " 

Virgil : Aen. ii, 604. 



XXXII. THE GOLDEN SCALES. 191 

1 Grand Cairo; see No. 1. Moon, month. Kept holy. Sayce, 
The Ancient Empires of the East, says: " The 7th, 14th, 19th, 21st, 
and 28th days of the lunar month were kept like the Jewish Sabbath, 
and were actually so named in Assyria. . . . On these days it was 
forbidden, at all events in the Accadian period, to cook food, to 
change one's dress or wear white robes, to offer sacrifice, to ride 
in a chariot, to legislate, to practice augury, or even to use medi- 
cine." 

3 Genius, originally the tutelary god or demon that was sup- 
posed by the ancients to preside over the birth and destinies of 
every individual human being. 

5 Some . . . tired and spent, Psalms 90: 10: " The days of our 
years are threescore and ten ; and if by reason of strength they be 
fourscore years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow." 

7 Light-winged boys; Cupid, the god of love, is represented as 
winged. Note the representatives of the other passions. 

8 What is the meaning of the wall of adamant? 

Wings like an eagle, Psalms 55 : 6 : "Oh that I had wings like 
a dove ! for then I would fly away and be at rest." Mansions of 
good men, John 14 ; 2 : "In my Father's house are many mansions. 
... I go to prepare a place for you." 

General Questions. What is there in this " Vision " to indicate 
that the life of man was formerly longer than it now is? How 
does this allegory fit into the purpose of the Spectator Paper? 
What are its teachings? What side of Addison's character does it 
reveal ? 

XXXII. THE GOLDEN SCALES. 

No. 463. Motto: — 

" In sleep, when fancy is let loose to play, 
Our dreams repeat the wishes of the day. 
Though farther toil his tired limbs refuse, 
The dreaming hunter still the chase pursues, 
The judge abed dispenses still the laws, 
And sleeps again o'er the unfinished cause. 
The dozing racer hears his chariot roll, 
Smacks the vain whip, and shuns the fancied goal. 
Me too the Muses in the silent night, 
With wonted chimes of jingling verse delight." 

Claudius, Trans, from Morley's Edition. 
1 Homer's balance, Iliad: Book xxii, 11. 271-276, Pope's trans- 
lation : — 

" Jove lifts the golden balances, that show 
The fates of mortal men and things below : 
Here each contending hero's lot he tries, 
And weighs with equal hand their destinies. 
Low sinks the scale surcharged with Hector's fate ; 
Heavy with death it sinks, and hell receives its weight." 



i 9 2 NOTES AND QUESTIONS. 

Hector was the leader of the Trojan forces in the war for the 
capture of Troy ; Achilles was the most renowned of the Greek 
leaders. 

The passage from Virgil occurs in the 2Eneid, Book XII, 11. 725- 
730 ; Dryden translates : — 

" Jove set the beam : in either scale he lays 
The champion's fate, and each exactly weighs. 
On this side life and lucky chance ascends : 
Loaded with death, that other scale descends." 

2Eneas was the leader of the Trojans, who were attempting to 
settle in Latium ; Turnus was the leader of the native Latin tribes ; 
.Eneas succeeds in his efforts, and thus a Trojan became the founder. 
of Rome. 

Great King of Babylon, Belshazzar; for a full account see Daniel 
5; weighing the mountains,Isaiah 40: 12; making the weight for 
the winds, Job 28 : 25 ; for similar expressions see Isaiah 26 : 7 ; 
Job 31 : 6; the balancing of the clouds, Job 37: 16 ; calamities laid 
in the balance, Job 6 : 2. Milton ... in a former paper, Spectator 
No. 321, in which the fourth book of Paradise Lost is discussed. 

2 Astraea, in classical mythology, the goddess of justice, daughter 
of Jupiter and Themis. When sin began to prevail upon earth, she 
left it, and was metamorphosed into the constellation Virgo, which 
is the sixth sign of the zodiac. Scorpio is the eighth sign, and Libra 
or the Scales the seventh. Pendulous, suspended. Up flew; the as- 
cending scale is not made the sign of victory, as in Homer and 
Virgil, but of lightness and weakness, according to that of Bel- 
shazzar ; thus Milton imitates Scripture more often than he does 
either Homer or Virgil. Gabriel, one of the angels of God, dis- 
patched on beneficent errands to men in different ,ages of the 
Church. 

5 What is the teaching of this paragraph? 

6 Vanity, Ecclesiastes 1:2: " Vanity of vanities ; all is vanity." 
Why should avarice and poverty, and riches and content balance 
each other? 

7 Study carefully the meanings of each group of words given 
to discover why these qualities were " entirely different " in weight. 

Blessings, compare these statements with the Beatitudes 
" Blessed are they that mourn," etc. Matthew 5 : 1-12. 

9 Recall the character of Sir Roger and apply to it what is said 
here concerning natural parts and learning. Study carefully the 
groups of words to discover Addison's meaning. 

10 Recall No. 37, Leonora's library, to discover why an English 
octavo should be heavier than a French folio. What indicates 
Addison's fondness for the classics? What was the event, judging 
by the first trial ? What policy does the author show in the weighing 
of the sexes and of the political parties? Tekel, Daniel 5:21: 
" Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting." 

Consider this paper from the standpoint of the purpose of The 
Spectator, and its teachings. 



FURTHER SUGGESTIONS FOR THEMES, 
AND GENERAL WORK. 

i. The importance of ancestry. 
" How was a man to be explained unless you at least knew some- 
body who knew his father and mother ? " George Eliot, in Silas 
Marner. 

2. Character as judged by the books we read. 

3. The purpose of The Spectator as developed in the Essays 
themselves. 

4. The belief that trade was degrading. 

5. A country home. (See No. 106.) 

6. The country parson and his opportunities. 

7. Family portraits, as showing the history of the family. 

8. Manners and the man. (See No. 2.) 

9. Select five persons whom you know, and treat of them as 
types. (See No. 2.) 

10. These five persons meet the editor of a modern newspaper 
(as in No. 34). Reproduce the conversation which would ensue. 

11. The Will Wimbles of modern society. 

12. The wooing of a bashful man. 

13. The lady's story as she would tell it to a confidant. 

14. Describe the home of your particular friend. (No. 106.) 

15. Sir Roger and party spirit. 

16. A complete sketch of Sir Roger as presented by Addison. 

17. Country manners of to-day. 

18. Pen portraits of the Spectator Club. 

19. Sir Roger and his dependents. 

20. Westminster Abbey from Sir Roger's standpoint. 

21. The coronation of Edward VII. as it would appear to Sir 
Roger. 

22. A ride across country, characterizing persons and places. 
(No. 122.) 

23. An account of Sir Roger's estate as Captain Sentry found it 
when he took possession. 

24. Sir Roger's place in literature. 

25. The purpose of The Spectator : was it accomplished? 

26. The style of Addison, and its fitness for his purpose. Cite 
passages in proof of your statements. 

27. Compare Sir Roger's chaplain with the " village preacher " 
in Goldsmith's Deserted Village, and with the vicar in Vicar of 
Wakefield. 

28. The Spectator: What was it? How often issued?' The 
character and scope of its topics? 



1 94 FURTHER SUGGESTIONS. 

29. The qualifications of Addison and Steele for sucn an enter- 
prise. 

30. What was there in the social conditions of Queen Anne's 
time that made such an enterprise possible? 

31. Cite passages from these papers to shew Addison's kindly 
humor ; his satire ; his tact. 

32. What may be said of Addison's methods as a reformer? 

33. Review carefully the purpose of each paper. 

34. In the portrait of what character does Addison laugh at the 
literary doctrines of the day? 

35. How much of the interest in these papers lies in the por- 
trayal of character, and how much in the pictures of the manners 
and customs of the times? 

36. Cite passages from The Spectator that illustrate — 

a. The social conditions in Addison's time. 

b. The customs of society. 

c. The fashions in dress. 

d. The taste in art and literature. 

e. The state of morals and religion. 

37. How do these papers show serious thought on the problems 
which the times presented? 

38. Show how these papers are the forerunner of the novel. 
Sketch a plot for a story, using the characters and incidents intro- 
duced into the papers, p 



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